Category Archives: Aviation

Domestic airlines carried 309.35 lakh passengers during Jan-Apr 2016 as against 251.05 lakh passengers during the corresponding period of 2015 thereby registering a growth of 23.22 per cent. DGCA released the figures after analysing traffic data submitted by various domestic airlines for the month of April 2016. In terms of On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines Air Asia ruled the roost at 89.1 per cent with Indigo close behind at 88.5 per cent. In terms of Passenger Load Factor, SpiceJet remains ahead at 93.2 per cent in April.

Jet Airways will launch additional daily services to Dammam from Mumbai and Delhi, further boosting its operations to the key Saudi Arabian port city. The airline will introduce the new services, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, starting July 1, 2016, adding to the single daily flights it already operates on those routes and from Kochi. The fares for flights from New Delhi (DEL) to Dammam (DMM) start from Rs 19,224. The additional service from Mumbai to Dammam, Jet Airways flight 9W 506, will depart Mumbai at 0045 hrs and arrive into Dammam at 0205. The return flight to Mumbai, 9W 505, will depart Dammam at 0305 hrs and arrive in Mumbai at 0920 hrs. The service from Delhi to Dammam, Jet Airways flight 9W 518, will depart Delhi at 2230 hrs and arrive Dammam at 0010 hrs. The return flight, 9W 517, will depart Dammam at 0110 hrs and arrive in Delhi at 0730 hrs. All times listed are local. Jet Airways currently operates flights from 12 cities across India to 10 in the Gulf.

Hahn Air Systems, the global consolidation service connecting small, medium and low-cost airlines to all major GDSs worldwide has reached 50 H1-Air partners with the latest addition being low-cost carrier SpiceJet. With this new entrant, Hahn Air has nearly doubled its network of regional, low-cost airlines and tour operators since the beginning of 2015. Established in 2012, Hahn Air Systems, the sister company of airline and distribution specialist Hahn Air, offers its H1-Air product to non-GDS airlines enabling them to be booked through over 95,000 travel agencies in 190 markets. These non-GDS airlines can benefit from Hahn Air’s economies of scale and have the potential to increase their revenue streams by being able to penetrate new markets and expand their reach to even more travel agencies. The H1-Air network is an innovative distribution solution with the potential to accelerate SpiceJet’s sales by linking it to global markets. As a result, SpiceJet’s domestic and international services will be available in all GDSs and will be issuable on the Hahn Air HR-169 document. Alexander Proschka, Head of Hahn Air Systems, said “We are proud to welcome SpiceJet as the latest airline to join the H1-Air network. This is especially momentous as they are Hahn Air System’s 50th partner and we are happy to share the occasion with them. Going forward, we will redouble our efforts to grow our portfolio of H1-Air partners and to globally connect more airlines, in turn offering our travel agent partners greater possibilities.” “We are looking forward to a great association with Hahn Air Systems. We are hoping that this association will help us reach out to many more untapped markets which will ultimately result in our business …

Asiana Airlines is expanding its non-stop Incheon (Seoul) to New Delhi flight from three to five times a week starting July 3, 2016. The airline flies an Airbus 300-330 on this route with a configuration of 30 business class seats and 260 travel class seats. The flight on DEL-ICN route will operate every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, whereas the ICN-DEL  flight will be operational on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. This additional flight demonstrates both the growing market for leisure and business travelers as well as Asiana Airlines ongoing commitment to expanding connectivity between Korea and India.

Air India Express has commenced its direct services from Delhi to Dubai and Delhi-Abu Dhabi. Air India Express will operate the two direct flights to Dubai and Abu Dhabi daily. New Boeing 737-800 aircraft with capacity to carry 189 passengers are being deployed. “The inaugural flight to Dubai, IX 141, took off with 166 passengers from New Delhi at 9.05 am on Sunday. The daily flight to Abu Dhabi will be effective Monday,” Air India Express said in a release. The entry of Air India’s international budget arm into Delhi is likely to intensify competition in the lucrative Gulf routes from the national capital since other Indian carriers have recently increased their frequencies. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Airways have flights on Gulf routes, a PTI report stated. Headquartered in Kochi, Air India Express flies from 13 places across the country to as many destinations in the Middle-East and South-East Asia.

National carrier, Air India has become the first airline to launch self check-in kiosks for its domestic fliers that aims to make the check-in process expeditious. The exclusive service presently covers 26 domestic centers at Aurangabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Raipur, Rajkot, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Visakhapatnam and Varanasi. Under this initiative, started on May 1, 2016, customers can procure the boarding pass by using the self-check-in kiosks also known as CUSS (Common Use Self Service) near the check-in area at the airport.

IndiGo launches 10 new flights within India and Oman, including first flights connecting Kochi to Muscat, and Hyderabad to Coimbatore and Nagpur. Effective May 16, 2016, IndiGo will commence an additional flight connecting Delhi to Ranchi. With effect from June 21, 2016, the airline will introduce its first flight on the Kochi-Muscat route, while also launching its second flight connecting Hyderabad to Kochi. Furthermore, effective June 22, 2016, IndiGo will begin operations with its first flight between Hyderabad and Coimbatore & Hyderabad and Nagpur. Both corporate and leisure travellers will now have the opportunity to experience the matchless on-time performance that IndiGo is synonymous with. Fares for flights: Delhi-Ranchi (2nd non-stop daily) is Rs 3834, Kochi-Muscat (first non-stop daily) flight is Rs 5999, Muscat-Kochi is Rs 6782, Hyderabad-Kochi (2nd non-stop daily) flight is Rs 3103, Hyderabad-Coimbatore (1st non-stop daily) flight is Rs 2890, Hyderabad-Nagpur (1st non-stop daily) flight is Rs 2784

Air India has launched its services on two new routes — Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad and Bhopal-Raipur-Pune sectors from May 23, 2016, on its wholly owned subsidiary Alliance. The fares for Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad, as well as Bhopal-Raipur-Pune flight start from Rs 2601 one way. The new flights come as part of its Connect India programme. These services will fulfill a long standing demand of the students’ community, IT, Industrial and defence sectors. Alliance Air will operate a 72-seater ATR aircraft on these routes thus giving connectivity to smaller destinations within the country under the Government’s scheme of connecting all cities in India. Flight AI 9863 on Bhopal-Jabalpur-Hyderabad shall operate four days a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The flight will take-off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Jabalpur at 0950 hrs. The flight will take-off from Jabalpur at 1020 hrs. for its onward journey and will reach Hyderabad at 1220 hrs. The return flight AI 9864 will take-off from Hyderabad at 1250 hrs. and will reach Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. The flight will leave Jabalpur at 1450 hrs. and will touch down at Bhopal at 1625 hrs. Alliance Air will commence another direct flight AI 9867/9868 between Bhopal and Jabalpur from June 16, 2016. The flight will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays thereby making the operation on this route. A daily one. The flight AI 9865 on the second route – Bhopal-Raipur-Pune – will take off from Bhopal at 0845 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1015 hrs. The flight will leave Raipur at 1045 hrs. and will reach Pune at 1300 hrs. The return flight AI 9866 will leave Pune at 1330 hrs. and reach Raipur at 1545 hrs., depart …

AirAsia Berhad will be suspending its three times weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Goa effective June 7, 2016, as part of its route rationalisation initiative. Guests that are affected by this will be offered options to alleviate any inconvenience that might occur. They will be notified directly via their registered member email account, as well as via an SMS notification. AirAsia strongly urges all guests to keep their email addresses and mobile numbers with their country code prefix updated in their AirAsia member profiles to ensure that the airline can reach them to assist them. Spencer Lee, Head of Commercial, AirAsia Berhad, said, “We take very careful considerations for every new route that we introduce. However, this suspension is due to our route rationalisation exercise. Despite this route adjustment, we remain committed to the Indian market and look forward to return to Goa in the future.” Affected guests for this route suspension will be able to choose from three options: move flight to an earlier date before the suspension, subject to availability, full credit shell with 180 days validity or full refund.

Air India recorded a growth of 25 per cent in passenger traffic to Singapore in 2015 making it one of the top contributors in terms of absolute growth in passenger carriage between Singapore and South Asia. The growth in Air India’s passenger traffic far exceeded the overall increase in passenger traffic at Changi Airport last year, which increased to 55.4 million passengers corresponding to an increase of 2.6 per cent. Indian nationals accounted for over six per cent of Changi’s total traffic with 3.4 million Indian travellers passing through the airport in 2015. According to Changi Airport’s statement, Air India’s growth in passenger carriage on its Singapore routes in 2015, is largely spurred by an increased passenger capacity due to aircraft upgrade, as well as an expansion of routes in the last two years. Air India increased capacity on its Singapore routes last year, and now operates 42 weekly flights to the Singapore, including daily services from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Singapore is now connected to 13 Indian cities with 404 weekly flights. The statement further added that the passenger traffic between India and Singapore is set to grow, with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Silk Air’s (SIA’S subsidiary) recently increased frequencies to Cochin, Colombo, Hyderabad and Trivandrum and low-cost carrier Scoot’s entry to the Indian market from May 2016. Source: PTI