18 Sep 2017

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 18 September

Etihad to stay on as partner in Jet Airways: Goyal Etihad Airways will continue to be a partner in Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal, Chairman, Jet Airways, said at the airline’s annual shareholder meeting. Goyal also announced the induction of Harsh Mohan as Etihad’s representative on Jet’s board of directors. Jet and Etihad have had a three-year partnership, after the latter picked up a 24 per cent stake in the domestic carrier. Goyal said the partnership “continues to deliver synergies across all areas, including network growth, revenue enhancement, operational efficiencies and cost improvement, to the mutual benefit of both airlines...For another year running, Jet Airways, together with Etihad Airways, carried more passengers between India and the Gulf than any other airline.” Google Flights ties up with ClearTrip in India expansion bid Google Flights, the six-year-old flight search application from the American internet giant, is fast expanding in the rapidly growing Indian airline market. The Indian travel market is projected to grow to $48 billion by 2020 with its biggest contributor, air travel, expected to expand at 15 per cent to $30 billion, Vikas Agnihotri, industry director, Google India, said, citing a report that Google recently produced with the Boston Consulting Group."For Google... this partnership with Cleartrip is important as it helps expand our offering, and provides consumers with another way to conveniently plan and book their travel," he added. India’s First 19-seater aircraft may fly soon A team of engineers is giving shape to what promises to be India’s first 19-seater indigenous passenger aircraft at a 3,000-sq feet terrace in Mumbai’s Borivili suburb, which has become a bustle of activity. Amol Yadav, a pilot with a private airline, is leading the initiative. TAC 005, as the aircraft is called, will be ready for flight in the next four months, and is likely to give shape to India’s dream of a homegrown passenger aircraft. Yadav said that he began work on the 19-seater aircraft to solve India’s regional connectivity issues. Mumbai airport to be saturated by 2018, says report The city airport will reach its saturation point next year, leaving it with no room to operate more flights than it currently does. A report by Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), a leading aviation think tank, said the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) has currently reached 94% of its passenger-handling capacity. The country’s second-busiest airport, after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, handles 45.2 million passengers every year and witnesses around 930 flight operations every day. According to the Sydney-based think tank’s report, the Mumbai airport will handle 48 million passengers – its maximum capacity – in 2018. The IGI airport, which has an annual capacity of 100 million passengers, is currently used by 58 million passengers and will reach saturation point in 2023. San Francisco Tourism eyes incentive & corporate travellers from India San Francisco witnessed 183,000 overnight visitors from India last year which placed India as the ninth strongest inbound source market. The tourism board is hopeful of further enhancing the bednights from the Indian market this year up to 200,000 and by the year end, India is expected to climb up two more rankings and be the seventh inbound source market. This would be a year on year growth of 7.2%, as per our forecast. Incentive and corporate travellers from India will continue to be their core focus. By 2020, we are eyeing to attract 238,000 overnights from the Indian market, pushing its ranking to sixth globally, informed Antonette Eckert, Director-International Travel, San Francisco Travel Association while speaking to TravelBiz Monitor. Uzbek envoy seeks to boost ties with India in aviation, biz Ambassador of Uzbekistan to India Farhod Arziev assured that the frequency of flights operating between the two countries would be increased by 2018, the BRICS Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) said. He was speaking during an interactive session on 'Investment Opportunities' in Uzbekistan, organized here under the aegis of the BRICS CCI. USTDA signs MoU with Airport Authority of India to develop Kolkata, Lucknow airports The US Trade and Development Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Airports Authority of India to support a 20-year master plan aimed at expansion of operational capacities of the Kolkata and Lucknow international airports, an official said Authority of India (AAI) selected Cincinnati-based Landrum & Brown (L&B) company. to conduct the master planning, which will incorporate sustainable and environment-friendly ways to accommodate the anticipated increase in demand at two of the fastest growing airports in AAI’s network, US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) said. “We are pleased to support this important project that will support India’s rapid aviation growth, while connecting US businesses with new export opportunities,” said Thomas R Hardy, USTDA’s Acting Director. Under the US-India Aviation Cooperation Programme, USTDA has supported a number of similar activities aimed at helping the India’s growing aviation market. Vistara announces 30-hour long India’s largest aviation Hackathon Vistara has launched ‘Vistara Hackathon’, the country’s largest of its kind in aviation. The all-India ‘Vistara Hackathon’ will be held in Delhi/NCR and Bengaluru from October 7, 2017 to 8, 2017, the registration for which is open until September 25, 2017. The ‘Vistara Hackathon’ is aimed at encouraging the young minds and draw participation from across the country to create innovative solutions that will disrupt the industry in line with the airline’s vision of transforming the flying experience for travellers in India. Acumen Aviation © 18 September All Rights Reserved.