SpiceJet named ‘Greatest Brand’, Ajay Singh ‘Global Asian’ of the year

It was a clean sweep for SpiceJet at the Asia One Awards in Singapore as it walked away with top recognition in three prime categories. The budget airline was adorned ‘Asia’s Greatest Brands – 2016’ by the Asia One Board. The selection process was supervised by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh, who has scripted the most remarkable turnaround story of recent times, was honored with the title of the ‘Global Asian of the year’ while Chief Financial Officer Mr. Kiran Koteshwar won the award for ‘Asia’s Greatest CFO 2016’.

Etihad adds third daily frequency to B’luru from March 26

Mumbai: The UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways today announced introduction of the third daily flight between Abu Dhabi and Bengaluru from March 26.
“The triple daily schedule will provide greater choice to local passengers travelling between the two cities, and improved connectivity to destinations across the Gulf, North America and Europe from our Abu Dhabi hub,” the airline which owns 26 per cent in Jet Airways said in a statement.

AI's first Dreamliner service on Delhi-Kochi-Dubai route

New Delhi:  National carrier Air India on Tuesday said it would operate its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the Delhi-Kochi-Dubai route from February 1. It will be a daily flight. “The newly launched flight will give further fillip to the growing ties between the UAE and India and will offer immense benefits to the Indian community in the UAE.

Operating daily, flight AI 933 will depart from Delhi at 0510 hours and will reach Kochi at 0800 hours. For its onward journey from Kochi, AI 933 will depart at 0915 hours and touch down at Dubai airport at 12pm.

International flights from Bihta, airlines to take call

Patna:  Patna district administration is likely to commence the land acquisition process for development of civil enclave at Bihta airbase from the first week of February. Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said the cabinet coordination department would release funds to the tune of Rs 120crore sanctioned earlier by the state cabinet within a couple of days, following which land acquisition process would commence.
Sources in Airports Authority of India (AAI) claimed that survey of the land to be acquired has been completed and the design for the proposed enclave has also been finalised.

Air traffic grows 23%, railways AC travel under 5%

New Delhi: Domestic air traffic is booming but the travel surge seems to have given the railways a miss, especially in the more profitable air-conditioned classes. While air traffic grew 23% to almost 77 million during April-December, the number of passengers travelling in air-conditioned railway coaches, which touched 108 million, grew at less than 5%.
As a proportion of number of passengers travelling in air-conditioned coaches, air traffic was over 71%, which is a record in recent years. Just a year ago, it was a shade over 60%. As a proportion of AC passenger traffic, domestic air traffic used to hover around the 50% mark until 2014-15.

Foreign tourists’ plans thrown into tailspin

Runway repairs at airports such as Khajuraho and Varanasi, which will take over two months to complete, confusion over flight schedules and lack of clarity from the government have thrown travel plans of several foreign tourists into a tailspin. Itineraries of over 100 groups of foreign tourists, which were drawn up over a year ago, are said to be threatened by the repairs and the ensuing confusion. According to travel operators, the groups will have to make major changes to their itinerary.

“At the moment no seats are available from and to Khajuraho from the first week of March till the end of May. Checking with Air India and Jet Airways, who operate on this sector, has fetched us no results,” said. Abraham George of Incredible Vacations India. George, who has group bookings from the United States scheduled in March and April, has contacted various travel trade bodies, and has been given to understand that the Varanasi airport will be closed from March 10 onwards for extension of the runway for a few hours every day.

Ticketing agents in Kashmir condemn “exorbitant airfare”

Local ticketing agents in Kashmir on Sunday condemned the sharp increase in airfare of flights to and from the snow-hit Valley, especially during the last five days, when arterial Srinagar-Jammu National Highway remained closed due to inclement weather. “We the local ticketing agents of Kashmir Valley condemn the exorbitant airfares charged by the airlines during the peak season,” a statement from a group of local ticketing agents said at Srinagar.
The statement said the hike in airfare was arbitrary which has caused immense agony to the people and would have negative impact on the Valley’s tourism.

Thales to Showcase its Product Range at Aero India 2017

Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. Present in India since 1953, Thales today has over 300 employees working with its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary, Thales India Pvt. Ltd. Headquartered in New Delhi, Thales has other operational offices and sites that are spread across Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, among others.

Fog disrupts air, rail services across north India, over 40 flights delayed in Delhi

Dense fog has affected flight operations to and from Delhi airport on Monday morning. As many as 28 departures and 12 arrivals were delayed in last one hour.
The airport authorities activated CAT 3 early morning.
In northern India, flight services were disrupted in Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar and Chandigarh airports due to poor visibility caused by fog.
Visibility at Srinagar is minimal, operations are likely to be normal after visibility improves post 10 am. In morning visibility was 75m.
Patna too was blanketed under thick fog, however, operations are expected to improve by 10:30 hrs.
To Read the News in Full 30/01/17 Shalini Lobo/Anindya Banerjee/India Today

Reduce taxes to support aviation industry

Budget 2017 is expected to be one of the most difficult and watershed budgets in the history of India. There are too many variables, like demonetisation, the mid-year introduction of GST (Goods & Services Tax) and its uncertainty in tax revenues; and most importantly, the expectations of the poll going public and the rest of the country who are expecting the next benefits after enduring the pains of demonetisation. Of course, there’s the advancement of the budget date and the merger with the rail budget.

Rise in fuel costs, slide in rupee to hit Indian airlines: report

New Delhi: Aviation in India will be impacted by the rise in fuel costs in the first quarter of 2017. The slide in the value of the rupee will also impact the earnings of all airlines, Martin Consulting said in its ‘Review of Indian aviation in 2017’ report.

The report warns that the increase in global aviation fuel prices could result in “casualties” among Indian airlines.

India’s Air Passenger Volumes To Reach 310 Million By FY18

Domestic air passenger volumes (pax) have been consistently increasing and are likely to reach 310 million by financial year 2017-18, says India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra).
This will be driven by the aspirations of the middle class to travel in flights and a reduction in price differential between air travel and rail journey, including the recently increased cancellation fees for train tickets.
The slowdown in economic growth during the first half of the current decade had minimal impact on pax growth.

Apply same rule for all players: Spicejet on OTP system review

New Delhi: With the aviation regulator DGCA reviewing airlines’ on-time performance (OTP) mechanism at four airports, budget carrier SpiceJet today called for applying same rules for all players and making the system more efficient.
“If data is challenged, do it in a better way … as long as rules are same for everybody, then there is no problem,” SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said today.

Airport Authority of India to step up security at Trivandrum International airport

Thiruvananthapuram: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has decided to strengthen the security arrangements inside the Trivandrum International Airport, following the suicide of a Russian tourist on Thursday. The deceased was identified as Daniil, 30, who had jumped off from reserved lounge of the multi-storey terminal.
The incident happened inside the high security zone has served as an eye opener for airport authorities. Airport director George G Tharakan said that the security wing of the airport has been asked to be more vigilant and plug all loopholes in the security apparatus.

Air India announces Boeing Dreamliner for Dubai-Cochin operation

Dubai: Air India in a press conference has announced the Boeing Dreamliner operation on Dubai/Cochin sector from February 1.

Addressing the press conference, counsel general of India Anurag Bushan said that the year 2016 will be remembered as a turnaround year in the fortunes of India’s aviation industry.
Bushan also highlighted that India's domestic market is on track to surpass 100 million passengers in financial year 2017, and in all likelihood India will overtake Japan this year to become the world’s third largest domestic market behind the USA and China. In reaching this milestone, India will have achieved average domestic traffic growth of over 15% per annum since the liberalisation of the sector commenced in financial year 2004.

It is a fact that India’s domestic traffic was up 21.2% while international grew by a more modest 7.7%. (Source CAPA)