11 Jan 2021

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 11 January

Air India's longest direct route San Francisco (SFO) to Bengaluru (BLR)  route flight takes off The inaugural flight of Air India's longest direct route San Francisco (SFO) to Bengaluru (BLR) with four women pilots took place on Sunday 10th January.  The four captains Zoya Aggarwal, Papagari Thanmai, Akansha Sonaware and Shivani Manhas became the first all-women crew to operate a flight over the North Pole on their way to Bengaluru (BLR). The flight was operated by a Boeing 777 200LR registered VT-ALG named 'Kerala'. The SFO airport is wearing the colours of the Indian flag to celebrate this occasion. Domestic aviation sector likely to return to normal in 2-3 months, says Civil Aviation Secretary The Domestic aviation sector expected to return to normal in 2-3 months said Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola. The government restricted airline capacity at 70% of the March level and imposed fare bands until late February 2021. Jalgaon airport sees six-fold increase in passenger footfall The Jalgaon airport, managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has registered a six-fold increase in passenger footfall in the last six months despite the Covid outbreak. According to the data shared by AAI, the passenger footfall in July was 164 and it rose to over 1,000 in December 2020. The airport has handled over 21,000 passengers ever since AAI made the airport functional in September 2019. Lucknow Airport's T3 scheduled to be ready by December 2021 Construction work of Lucknow's Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport Terminal 3 is underway. The new terminal will have all the latest state of the art features and will be ready by 2021 end. The construction of terminal 3 will be completed in two phases. During the first phase, the flight operations will be shifted from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. Once that is complete, the second phase will kick in, which includes demolishing the existing Terminal 1, and using the area to expand Terminal 3. Vistara announces new Delhi-Frankfurt route from 18 February Vistara announced special, non-stop flights between Delhi and Frankfurt from 18 February 2020. The airline will fly twice a week between the two cities, on Thursdays and Saturdays, as part of the ‘transport bubble’ formed between India and Germany. The route will be operated by Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Mr. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara said “As a key gateway to Germany and an ever-thriving metropolis that is a global hub of  finance, commerce and trade, Frankfurt is another significant addition to our route network that also strengthens our presence in Europe. India and Germany enjoy very strong ties, the impressions of which are visible in many areas including business, science and technology, that continue to fuel demand for travel between the two countries. Not only this, Germany is also home to hundreds of thousands of Indians and people of Indian origin. Flyers from both, India and Germany, will now have the choice of flying India’s best airline on this route that is trusted by millions of people for its world-class products, service and on-point hygiene and safety protocols.” Acumen Aviation © 11 January 2021 All Rights Reserved.