Category Archives: Aviation

SpiceJet has announced the launch of two new flights to Jaipur and Hyderabad. With the introduction of these two new flights, SpiceJet now connects 10 Indian cities with Dubai every day. The airline is offering an introductory one way offer of Dh359 (all-inclusive) between Dubai and Jaipur. The Dubai-Hyderabad fares are available at Dh397 (all-inclusive) on a first-come-first-served basis. The flights will commence on February 16, 2016, for which bookings are now open. “With the launch of our Jaipur-Dubai sector, SpiceJet will become the first private airline to operate a direct flight on this route. SpiceJet will also be the only airline to fly five times per week on this route. The Hyderabad-Dubai flights are so timed as to allow business travellers to India’s IT hub make the most of every working day,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Senior VP Commercial, SpiceJet. The airline will deploy its Boeing 737-800 aircraft on these routes.

RwandAir, the national carrier for Rwanda, will start direct flights from Rwanda into Mumbai effective September 2016. Clarence Fernandes, India representative, Rwanda Development Board, which also promotes tourism, reveales, “RwandAir will be coming in with four weekly flights from Mumbai to Dar-e-salaam and Dar-e-salaam to Kigali on A-330 with first, business and economy class. They will initially come in with 244 seats and as the demand increases the airline will scale up to 274 seats. This will be the shortest route, connecting Mumbai and Kigali. Dar-e-Salaam has a large Indian population so it was most practical to do a stop-over here.”

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering an aerial view of Mumbai for 20 minutes at a cost of Rs 2,995 per person. IRCTC has tied up with private chopper company, Aman Aviation, which will use the US-made Robinson R-44 helicopter carrying three passengers at a time. To book a helicopter ride, passengers can log on to www.irctctourism.com. In the initial phase, the rides will be operated to facilitate an aerial view of the suburbs of east and south Mumbai. Helicopter rides for south Mumbai will likely be undertaken on Mondays and Thursdays whereas joy rides for east Mumbai will be available on any given day except Wednesday. Booking will be closed four days prior to departure of the flight. Thirty seats will be available every day.

SpiceJet achieved the highest passenger load factor (PLF) of 92.1 per cent followed by IndiGo at 88.5 per cent and Air Costa at 87.1 per cent for the month of December 2015, according to data provided by Ministry of Civil Aviation. The domestic airlines carried 20.34 per cent more passengers during December. The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Dec 2015 were 810.91 lakhs as against 673.83 lakhs during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering the growth of 20.34 per cent. The On-Time Performance (OTP) of scheduled domestic airlines, computed for four metro airports viz. Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai showed Vistara topping the chart with 90.6 per cent followed by GoAir at 79.3 per cent (excluding Hyderabad) and Jet Airways at 78.5 per cent.

AirAsia has amended its pricing for bag fees, increasing the cost for purchasing checked baggage after a flight booking has been made. The new fee structure takes effect on January 28 and applies to all routes except those originating from Indonesia. At any time after a booking has been confirmed, customers will have to pay more for checked baggage, such as through the Manage My Booking page, the airline said. AirAsia said this is still a cheaper option than checking in bags at the last minute prior to departure. For example, a 20kg of checked baggage for a one-way flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore would cost RM45 at the time of the flight booking. If this is done later through Manage My Booking, customers would pay RM52 or a whopping RM355 on the day at the check-in counter. The new fee schedule has been uploaded to the AirAsia website. “You will still enjoy more savings as compared to purchasing last minute at the airport counter,” the airline said in a release.

JetPrivilege, the loyalty and rewards management programme and frequent flyer programme of Jet Airways, has entered into a reciprocal frequent flyer partnership with of Bangkok Airways’ loyalty scheme, FlyerBonus. JetPrivilege members can now earn and redeem JPMiles when travelling across the Bangkok Airways network including popular destinations like Samui, Krabi, Phuket and Luang Prabang via Bangkok. Similarly, members of Bangkok Airways’ FlyerBonus programme can also earn and redeem their miles across Jet Airways’ extensive network in India and key international destination in North America, Europe, Middle East and SAARC. Jet Airways operates three daily flights to Bangkok from its hubs in India – two from Mumbai and one from Delhi. Gaurang Shetty, Sr. Vice President, Commercial, Jet Airways, said, “This partnership with Bangkok Airways will offer exceptional value to our guests. The new codeshare destinations with Bangkok Airways are an important extension to the Jet Airways international network, enhancing our product offering and providing greater choice and convenience to our guests.” Prote Setsuwan, Vice President – Marketing, Bangkok Airways, said, “We are delighted to partner with JetPrivilege, the frequent flyer programme of Jet Airways. This will bring significant benefits to passengers of both airlines. As Bangkok Airways always continues to offer our FlyerBonus members more value and options, we hope and trust that this partnership will enhance their traveling experience with us.”

Bhaskar Bhat, MD of Titan Company Limited, has taken over as Chairman of Tata SIA Airlines Limited. He succeeds Prasad Menon, who retired from the airline on January 13, 2016. Bhat had joined the Board of the company with effect from January 14, 2016.

The domestic passenger air traffic in India has recorded very strong growth, up 25.1 per cent, during November 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. This was revealed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which released global passenger traffic results for November 2015, showing a continued strong traffic growth above the 10 year average rate of 5.6 per cent. The improvements in industry load factors have been largely driven by domestic markets, particularly in India, where there has been a significant improvement in matching capacity to demand and on-going economic strength, according to the report. Globally, domestic travel demand rose 6.4 per cent in November compared to November 2014 but results were mixed, with Brazil, Russia and Japan all showing declines. Total revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 5.9 per cent compared to November 2014. Though this is a weaker result than the October figure of 7.1 per cent but this has been termed as very healthy rate of growth despite factors which are likely to have a temporary affect. Data for the first ten months of the year show a 5 per cent decline in average fares in currency-adjusted terms. November capacity (available seat kilometres or ASKs) increased by 4.2 per cent, and load factor rose 1.3 percentage points to 78.0 per cent. “The airline industry is delivering solid financial and operational performance. The industry’s return on capital for 2015 and 2016 is expected to exceed its cost of capital, a very rare occurrence. This means we are on the path toward financial sustainability. Consumers are benefiting from lower fares, and airlines are able to invest in new aircraft that are more comfortable, quieter and more environmentally friendly,” …

Sharjah-based Air Arabia, has announced a change of GSA of 10 years – from Track India to Sharjah-based Cozmo Travel. Sachin Nene, Regional Manager – India, Air Arabia, announced this on Wednesday evening at a networking evening organised by the airline for its select trade partners in Mumbai. He said, “We will be moving from Track India after 10 years and appointing Cozmo Travel as our new GSA for India. We want to assure our trade partners that business will continue as usual.”  Also present at the occasion was Shalini Rajan, Head of Sales, Air Arabia, and Jamal Abdulnazar, CEO, Cozmo Travel, from Sharjah. A part of the Air Arabia Group, Cozmo has huge expansion plans for pan-India in 2016 with a minimum budget of Rs 10 crore.

GoAir has launched four new routes connecting Mumbai with Leh, and Bengaluru with three cities-Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Patna (Bihar), and Ranchi (Jharkhand). The Mumbai-Leh and Bengaluru-Port Blair routes will commence on March 27. The Leh flights will take off from Mumbai at 0400 and arrive in the Himalayan city at 0645. The return services will then depart from Leh at 0715 and arrive in Mumbai at 1115, with a brief stop in Srinagar. On the Port Blair route, flights will depart from Bengaluru at 1430 and arrive at 1715. The return flights will then leave Port Blair at 1125 and arrive back in Bengaluru at 1400. Additional frequencies will also be introduced on the routes from Delhi to Ranchi, Lucknow and Patna, and there will also be an extra flight between Mumbai and Srinagar. All the new flights will be operated using GoAir’s fleet of 180-seat, all-economy Airbus A320 aircraft.