Qatar Airways reiterates it will launch airline in India with 'at least 100 planes'

New Delhi: Qatar Airways on Tuesday reaffirmed its plans to start an airline in India. The airline’s CEO, Akbar Al Baker, told the media in France “we will launch an airline in India which will have a fleet of at least 100 aircraft”. He did not specify what type of planes will be deployed in India. Baker made this statement while taking delivery of Airbus A350-1000 in Toulouse on Tuesday.
The reiteration comes exactly a year after Al Baker had said that he along with Qatar government’s investment arm will start a domestic airline in India.

Surat international airport inches towards reality

Surat: The dream of local people to have an international airport in the Diamond City may come true with the state government allocating Rs 1 crore for setting up of immigration facilities at Surat airport.
Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, while presenting the state budget in Gujarat assembly on Tuesday, stated that the government has earmarked Rs 1 crore for setting up of immigration facilities at Surat airport.
It was on September 20, 2017, that the home department of Gujarat government had asked the director general of police to allot 68 immigration staff for Surat airport in the financial year 2018-19.
The prime minister’s office (PMO), ministry of civil aviation and ministry of home affairs (MHA) had given clear directions to the state government to take over immigration functions at Surat airport.

Indian carriers' share in international traffic up by 2.6%

New Delhi: This is one "made by Indians" programme that is showing the desired results.
Last year, 5.9 crore people flew in and out of India - up 11.3% from 5.3 crore in 2016. Indian carriers saw their share in this traffic going up to 38.6%, up a significant 2.6% in just one year from 36% in 2016. The jump came mainly on the back of a solid 58% increase in international passengers flown by IndiGo, followed by soon-to-be-privatised Air India express which saw 20% jump in this traffic.
Since the liberal grant of bilaterals to the Gulf, especially Dubai, by the previous UPA regime had become a controversy, the Modi government has not given more flying rights despite demand from all big players like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. As a result, the 11% growth in international traffic to and from India seen in 2017 over 2016 is mainly a result of more passengers being carried by Indian airlines.
Five Indian airlines fly abroad - Air India, AI Express, Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet. In 2016, these five accounted for 1.9 crore of the 5.3 crore passengers who flew in and out of India, which means a share of 36% in overall traffic. In 2017, they accounted for 2.3 crore of the 5.9 crore international traffic which saw their share go up to 38.6% - a jump of 2.6% in just a year.

New international hall at airport may take 3 years to open

Chennai: The arrival hall of the international terminal may not be commissioned for three years till a new integrated terminal is constructed at Chennai airport. The building, lying unused for the past five years, has only two baggage conveyors and one ramp to the basement baggage area which means that the hall will have to be used simultaneously with the existing old building to handle the passenger flow. But this is not working out as customs, immigration and airlines have refused to split their staff between two arrival buildings.
An official said the terminal could be used only after the integrated facility proposed is completed. “When that building is ready, we are thinking of moving domestic operations here and push international arrival in the integrated terminal. As it will have facilities to handle domestic and international passengers, we will shift flights based on the need for space,” said an official.

Thai low-cost carrier Nok Air pins turnaround on more China, India flights

Bangkok: Nok Airlines Pcl, the struggling low-cost subsidiary of Thai Airway International Pcl, aims to turn around operations by growing international revenue with more flights to China and India, a top executive said on Monday.

The carrier, which posted a loss of 1.85 billion baht ($58.95 million) last year, aims to increase revenue by 3 billion baht this year from 20.4 billion baht in 2017, by carrying 9 million passengers, 4 percent more than a year prior, Chief Executive Piya Yodmani told reporters at an earnings review.

He also said the carrier aims to increase revenue from international operations to 40 percent of its total from 20 percent a year earlier.

Bhopal: IndiGo flights to Delhi, Mumbai & Nagpur from city by March end

Bhopal: In view of the significant rise in the domestic flyers from the city airport, IndiGo and other airline will start flights from Bhopal to Delhi, Mumbai and Nagpur by March end.

Anuj Agrawal, Member (HR) of Airports Authority of India (AAI), said the more flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Nagpur from here will start soon and once number of flights increase, fare will also come down. Agrawal was in the city to address officials of AAI in two days HR conclave which concluded on Sunday.

Air traffic grows 20 pc in Jan, Raju says lovely start in 18

New Delhi: Domestic air traffic grew 20 per cent in January, with airlines ferrying more than 1.14 crore passengers, according to official data.

Describing the growth as a "lovely start" in 2018, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said India continues to be the worlds fastest growing aviation market.

Airlines carried over 1.14 crore passengers in January this year compared to 95.79 lakh people in the year-ago period. This marks an increase of 19.69 per cent, data released by the DGCA showed.

In January, no-frills carrier IndiGo cornered the highest market share of 39.7 per cent while that of Air India and Jet Airways stood at 13.3 per cent and 14.3 per cent, respectively.

SpiceJet had a market share of 12.6 per cent and that of GoAir was 9.6 per cent.

Decision on big planes soon

Kozhikode: Pressure is said to be mounting on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to resume the operation of wide-bodied aircraft at the Calicut airport after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) gave a favourable report to the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

“We have submitted an assessment report on the safety parameters and we are awaiting a decision in a week,” Airport Director J.T. Radhakrishna told The Hindu on Friday.
He said the DGCA could give approval after examining the report or inspect the tabletop runway and conduct a separate study to verify the safety assessment. Major airlines such as the Emirates, Saudia, and Air India had expressed willingness to operate the modern versions of the Boeing and the Airbus at the airport.

The operation of wide-bodied aircraft was banned from May 2015 in the wake of the Court of Inquiry report on the Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangaluru in May 2010.

Vistara arrives in Chennai in a big way; to connect it to four cities in India

Chennai: India’s finest full-service carrier, Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, today inaugurated daily direct service between Delhi and Chennai. The airline will double the frequency between the two cities from March 1, 2018, providing convenient same-day return options in both directions. In addition, Vistara will fly daily direct between Chennai and Port Blair from March 1, 2018, and will further expand its operations from the city from March 25, 2018 with daily direct flights between Chennai and Kochi and double daily flights between Chennai and Kolkata. With the inclusion of Chennai to its expanding network, the airline now flies to all Indian metros.

In addition, Chennai customers can connect through Delhi to many additional destinations including Srinagar, Jammu, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bagdogra, and Guwahati. Travellers also get to enjoy Delhi’s state-of-the-art Terminal 3 when flying Vistara, as well as seamless same-terminal connections when connecting to and from international flights at Delhi on Vistara’s 21 international airline partners.

AirAsia to stop flights from Mumbai from April 29

Mumbai: AirAsia has again decided to pull its flights out of Mumbai airport—this time, barely a year after relaunch. From April 29, Indonesian AirAsia X will not operate its Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur flights, which were popular with city tourists bound for Bali. The decision has left hundreds of passengers who have already booked their summer jaunt to Bali in the lurch.
Confirming the flight suspension, an AirAsia India spokesperson said that passengers who had bought tickets on Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur-Bali flights scheduled post April 29 have been given four options. First, re-route their flights through other nearby AirAsia destinations in India (at no cost, but subject to ticket availability) or retain the value of the fare in a credit account to be redeemed in six months or change the travel date to one before April 29 (again subject to availability) or obtain a refund.

Bagdogra Airport to have night landing facility by March end

Kolkata: Come March 29, Bagdogra Airport will have night landing facility in place to facilitate landing of aircraft in early morning and late evening. The number of flights operating from the airport will naturally pick up with the new facility. Private airlines like Spice Jet, Air Asia and Indigo have already held meetings with the higher officials of the airport and have evinced interest in morning and evening flights to Kolkata, once the system is put in place.

India's domestic air passenger traffic up over 19% in January

New Delhi: India's domestic air passenger traffic surged by 19.69 per cent to 1.14 crore in January from 95.79 lakh reported during the corresponding month of last fiscal, official data showed here on Friday.

"Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January 2018 were 114.65 lakh as against 95.79 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year thereby registering a growth of 19.69 per cent," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in its monthly domestic traffic report.

According to the data, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had the highest passenger load factor (PLF) -- a measure of capacity utilisation of the airline -- at 95 per cent during during the moth under review.

"SpiceJet has yet again recorded the highest PLF in the industry and this is the 34th month in a row that we have flown with load factors in excess of 90 per cent...," said SpiceJet's Chief Sales and Revenue Officer Shilpa Bhatia.

It was followed by budget passenger carriers GoAir with PLF at 90 per cent, and IndiGo and JetLite at 89.7 per cent each.

Vistara plans to fly abroad from H2 of 2018, after inducting 20th aircraft

Chennai: Vistara, a full-service carrier promoted by Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, is planning to expand its wings to international markets by the second half of 2018.
The airline plans to apply for clearance after inducting its 20th aircraft in May.
After announcing the launch of daily direct flights between Delhi and Chennai today, Sanjiv Kapoor, Vistara’s Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer said currently the airline has 17 aircraft and needs 20 to apply for an international license.
Vistara is expecting its 20th plane in May, and plans to add two more taking the total number to 22 by June 2018.

Air India planning direct flights between Abu Dhabi and Indian cities

In view of the developing bonds between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Air India will soon have direct flights connecting the major cities of both nations, a top official has said.

The management of Air India is mulling flights that connect Abu Dhabi with New Delhi and other Indian cities.

“The relations between two countries are on the upswing. There has been a great desire expressed by everyone that Air India should restore its full operations from Abu Dhabi to New Delhi. We are only connected to Mumbai and looking forward to having a connection to New Delhi,” said Ranjan Kumar Datta, Air India manager for Abu Dhabi and Al Ain region as quoted by Khaleej Times.
Revealing the strategy of increasing the frequency and seat pitch to woo the travellers, Datta said, “Our frequency here is not as high as we would like it to be and we are seriously looking at increasing the frequency.

Taking wings: Can Udan fly?

When the central government came out with the National Civil Aviation Policy on June 15, 2016, its commitment to ushering in regional air connectivity under Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) was lauded by all industry stakeholders. However, behind closed doors they admitted that the scheme’s success was fraught with challenges. Biggest among them was whether all airlines, particularly IndiGo and Jet Airways, which together account for 58 percent of domestic air passenger traffic, would participate.

In the last week of January this year, the ministry of civil aviation announced that 325 additional regional air routes under Udan were awarded to airlines, including IndiGo and Jet Airways. This happened through a bidding process, the second in less than 12 months, wherein the airline with the lowest bid bagged the route. In order to incentivise airlines to operate in India’s hinterland, the government provides for a three-year monetary support.