16 Feb 2021

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 16 February

Air India announces new routes from Chennai Air India has commenced new flights from Chennai to Madhurai. The carrier announced Chennai base expansion with new routes to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Port Blair planned. Delhi-Dubai currently world’s second-busiest international route The Delhi-Dubai is the second busiest international air route in the world India and the UAE have an air travel bubble agreement in place, allowing free travel between the two countries. According to research routes like Delhi-Dubai are critical for UAE carriers as gulf carriers seek to redeploy existing capacity lost on lucrative European & UK routes. Domestic flight operations recovering well; nearing pre-COVID numbers Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted last weekend India's air passenger traffic is almost touching pre-Covid numbers. In a tweet, the minister announced "2,97,102 passengers on 2,349 flights on 12 Feb, 2021 is the highest since resumption of domestic flights on 25 May." Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said “With air travel emerging as a preferred mode of travel due to safety, efficiency & time saving, we are almost touching pre-Covid numbers.” Indian government to launch specific seaplane routes The Indian government is looking to start seaplane services on several routes post the launch of the country's maiden seaplane service between the Statue of Unity near Kevadiya and Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad announced Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. The proposed routes include Delhi, Jaipur, Delhi-Udaipur, Delhi-Jodhpur and Delhi-Badrinath. India remained top destination for Dubai Airport in 2020 India remained the top destination country for air travellers from Dubai, one of the world’s busiest airports, in pandemic 2020. According to Dubai Airports, it saw 43 lakh passengers head to India; followed by the United Kingdom with 19 lakh and Pakistan coming with 18 lakh. The top three cities were London (11.5 lakh passengers), Mumbai ( 7.7 lakh) and New Delhi with 7.2 lakh. Delhi-Dubai is the world’s second busiest international route globally at the moment in terms of seat capacity deployed by airlines, according data released from UK-based aviation firm OAG. India-Russia International Flights Allowed Under Air Bubble Pact India has created an new air bubble arrangement with Russia with effect from 12 February. Indian and Russian carriers are now permitted to operate flights between India and Russia. This is the 25th country under the Under Bubble Pact Removal of air fare cap to depend on air traffic says Aviation Minister DGCA has raised airfare prices between 10-30% according to demand and route data. The hike in airfare cap is across domestic flights with immediate effect as the economic situation is slowly normalising post the impact of covid pandemic. The government had currently imposed a minimum and maximum limit on fares that airlines can charge from passengers and this fare cap order was effective until 31 March Acumen Aviation © 16 February 2021 All Rights Reserved.