Competition led to 30% airfare drop in India: Civil aviation minister

Pananji: The Union Civil Aviation Ministry's role in ensuring competition between commercial airline companies, along with fall in oil prices globally, led to a drop in airfares by as much as 30 per cent, a minister said on Saturday.

"If we are looking at the country as a whole, then average airfares have actually fallen by 30 per cent," Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Saturday.

India's domestic air passenger traffic up 25% in January: DGCA data

New Delhi: India's domestic air passenger traffic zoomed up by 25.13% during last month to 95.79 lakh, official data showed on Friday.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2017 were 95.79 lakh as against 76.55 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 25.13%," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in its statistical analysis.

According to the data furnished by DGCA, domestic air passenger traffic had increased by 23.91% during December to 95.52 lakh from 77.09 lakh during the corresponding month last year.

Direct flight to Kuala Lumpur from April

Bhubaneswar: Direct international flights from the State will soon be a reality. The State Government on Friday signed MoU with AirAsia Berhad for operating direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur. While the modalities of the operations have already been discussed, the flights are likely to start from the first week of April.
On behalf of the Government, Director of Tourism Nitin Bhanudas Jawale signed the MoU while AirAsia was represented by the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Aiereen Omar. The administrative, financial and commercial aspects of the operations were discussed in the meeting.

Jet Airways introduces global pass for domestic, international travel

Full-service passenger carrier Jet Airways on Thursday said it has introduced a new pre-paid "Jet Global Pass" that will allow passengers to travel on the airlines entire network of 66 domestic and international destinations.

The airline major said the pre-paid "Jet Global Pass" -- available as booklets with sets of four pre-paid coupons each -- has been designed and made available for both economy and premiere travel at price points of Rs 52,673 and Rs 119,312 (excluding taxes) respectively.

Regional air connectivity to bring down cost of flying to Rs. 2,500 an hour: Sinha

The regional air connectivity scheme, UDAN, will see the number of operational airports in the country shoot up to over 50, while the cost of travelling will come down to as low as Rs. 2,500 up to an hour of journey (via air).

According to Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, there are 75 operational small airports in the country and this number will increase to “over 125” with the successful implementation of UDAN (acronym for Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) – the new scheme through which the government hopes to make flying to Tier-II and III cities viable.

“We are building new airports, adding new terminals. We are improving the efficiency of existing terminals. The regional connectivity scheme will see us go from 75 operational airports to over 125,” the minister told BusinessLine on the sidelines of the Momentum Jharkhand Global Investors’ Summit.

AI lines up an all-woman, round-the-world flight

To fly to San Francisco from Delhi, Air India flies eastwards over the Pacific, making a 15,300km journey, which happens to be the world's longest non-stop route to be operated by any airline. To return to Delhi, it flies over the Atlantic. The to and fro route between Delhi and San Francisco then circumnavigates the globe. That exclusivity, combined with the fact that the national carrier employs a number of women pilots, engineers and flight dispatchers will be put to judicious use by Air India this Women's Day, in an attempt to fly into the Guinness record books.
Operating flights manned (pun unintended) solely by women crew to celebrate Women's Day is a decades-old practice with the national carrier. What is new this year is that it will involve an all-woman crew, around-the-world flight.

Kerala-Gulf sector remains important for Air India'

Air India (AI) would buy 100 new aircraft in next four years, said Melvin Alphonso Diselva, Africa-Middle East manger of the airline. He was here to present awards tobest performing travel agents in the region.
When asked about direct flight services to Karipur, he said: "Once the authorities allow landing of widebodied aircrafts we will definitely restart the service. Kerala-Gulf sector is very important for us as we operate 375 weekly flights in the sector. Around 25% of the airline's income is generated from this sector."
He added that for Kochi and Hyderabad-bound passengers the baggage weight limit would be 45kg. Earlier, the cap was 40kg.
To Read the News in Full 17/02/17 The Times Of India
 

Air India leaves Tiruchy skies open for private operators

At a time when private players are gearing up to tap the potential of the Tiruchy-Chennai sector, the decision by State-owned operator Air India Express to wind up operations to the State capital has left fliers flummoxed. Having operated in the sector for over eight years, Air India Express announced last week that it was winding up the domestic service and cited operational restraints as the reason.

Air India Express operated its last flight to Chennai from Tiruchy on February 14, flying with 30 passengers, and will henceforth have services only to Singapore.

Considered the cheapest airline among the ones operating in the sector, the cancellation of services to Chennai has put flyers in discomfort. Several passengers who spoke to Express expressed concern that the decision would pave way for private carriers.

4 flights resume operations from airport

With improvement in visibility conditions, four — one Air India and three IndiGo — flights resumed operations from the city's Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport after a gap of nearly three months on Thursday.
While IndiGo has resumed three morning flights — 6E-494 on Delhi-Patna route, 6E-634 on Patna-Calcutta-Goa route and 6E-339 on Patna-Lucknow-Mumbai route, Air India has resumed the operation of an evening flight (AI- 415/416) that operates on Patna-Delhi route.
Flights are not allowed to land at the airport unless the visibility is at least 1,200 metres. Accordingly, all four airlines operating from the city airport — Air India, IndiGo, GoAir and Jet Airways — had cancelled or rescheduled their morning flights and added flights in the afternoon under their winter schedule from the first week of November.

Airports 22: What’s the flight plan, captain?

Kochi: Even as the state government has given approval for a greenfield airport at Sabarimala, data available with the Civil Aviation Ministry showed 22 technically operational airports run by the Airport Authority of India do not handle a single scheduled flight. Five of them are in South India. However, most of these airports carry out general aviation purposes and handle non-scheduled and training flights.

The Kerala Cabinet has approved the greenfield airport proposal and entrusted the Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation (KSIDC) to conduct a feasibility study. The data revealed the ministry had received 15 proposals to set up greenfield airports in the country during the last three years - five from Andhra Pradesh, two each from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, one from Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana and Kerala.

New airport to be developed at Jamshedpur: Sinha

Ranchi: Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha today said that apart from developing the old airport at Jamshedpur, an all new airport would also be set up at the steel city. Addressing reporters during the Momentum Jharkhand Global Investors Summit he said under the regional connectivity scheme bids have been received for Jamshedpur which would be now soon connected with Kolkata. He said that the number of flights operating from Ranchi during the summer season would be increased from 14 to 18 with Air Asia operating flights from Ranchi to New Delhi and Kolkata. Mr Sinha said that his department was also working at developing the airports at all the other major cities of the state including Dhanbad, Dumka, Giridih, Hazaribagh and Palamu to increase air travel in the state. He said that the construction of the airports would commence as soon as the land is made available.
To Read the News in Full 17/02/17 UNI/WebIndia123
 

4 flights resume operations from Patna airport

Patna: With improvement in visibility conditions, four — one Air India and three IndiGo — flights resumed operations from the city's Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport after a gap of nearly three months on Thursday.
While IndiGo has resumed three morning flights — 6E-494 on Delhi-Patna route, 6E-634 on Patna-Calcutta-Goa route and 6E-339 on Patna-Lucknow-Mumbai route, Air India has resumed the operation of an evening flight (AI- 415/416) that operates on Patna-Delhi route.

Directive to airlines on cabin luggage norm

Pune: The Lohegaon airport authorities have issued a fresh directive to airlines iterating that the cabin luggage rule of only a hand baggage per passenger should be enforced.
The instruction follows the recent meeting of senior officers of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) with top airlines' officials in Delhi. The airlines' officials were told to strictly follow the hand baggage regulations and restrict the number of bags people carry in cabins.
Manjit Singh, the public relations officer of the CISF, told TOI over phone from Delhi, "A meeting was convened on the issue and things were discussed."

Thai Smile to launch direct flights from Delhi, Mumbai to Phuket soon

New Delhi: Thailand's popular beach town Phuket could soon be connected through a direct flight away from Delhi and Mumbai. Thai Smile, a fully-owned full service subsidiary of Thai Airways, is planning to launch nonstops from these two metros to Phuket. While the flight from Delhi may start in May, the Mumbai connection is expected to start later this year.
"Thailand has utilised its bilaterals for operating flights to Indian metros and next month, the two countries will hold a dialogue on enhancing the flying rights. Once that happens, we are looking at a Delhi-Phuket-Bangkok-Delhi routing from May 1 and a similar routing from Mumbai. Indian travellers love to shop and that is why we have a Bangkok stopover on the way back along with an enhanced economy class baggage allowance of 30 kg (for economy flyers) on our flights to and from India. We are looking at a Delhi-Phuket flight thrice a week to begin with," Thai Smile CEO Woranate Laprabang told TOI.

IndiGo Continues To Rule Indian Skies Even As January Market Share Dips Slightly

InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.-promoted low-cost airline IndiGo began the new year with yet another month of superior market share in the domestic aviation industry.
IndiGo's market share in January 2017 stood at 39.8 percent, slightly lower than the revised 40.3 percent share it had captured in December 2016, according to data released by the regulatory body Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Jet Airways Ltd. saw its market share improve 50 basis points to 15.5 percent, while low-cost rival SpiceJet Ltd. held 12.8 percent.