22 Jul 2019

India Aviation Industry Newsletter 22 July

Air India plans direct flight from Bhopal to Bengaluru Air India is considering to launch air connectivity between Bhopal and Bengaluru. Sources said, Air India will do a survey on the route regarding the viability of operating a direct flight. When contacted, CMD, Air India, Ashwani Lohani told TOI about consideration of the route. "It may be considered as next destination from Bhopal." Airport lounge developer Collinson set to triple its investment in India Collinson has announced its intention to triple its investment in India. It will double its lounge portfolio in India over the next three years, adding to its current portfolio of 45 airport lounges in 20 Indian cities. The company said it will work with airports across the country to identify opportunities to open new exclusive lounges and airport amenities “to meet the growing demand of domestic and international travellers”. ANA Will Offer Routes from Narita to Chennai All Nippon Airways (ANA) will begin serving a route connecting Tokyo Narita International Airport and Chennai International Airport on 27^TH October, utilizing the Boeing 787-8 aircraft. The new Chennai flight is part of ANA’s global strategy which prioritizes world-class international passenger service. When service begins this October, ANA will be the only airline providing direct flights from Japan to South India. This will be ANA’s third route offering service to India, along with flights from Narita to Mumbai and Delhi. DXB Welcomes Air India's Inaugural Services from Indian Cities of Indore and Kolkata Dubai International (DXB) welcomed India's national carrier Air India's inaugural flights from the cities of Indore and Kolkata (Calcutta) . The thrice weekly service from Indore is the first international flight out of the city, which is the commercial capital of the state of Madhya Pradesh. DXB is now served by four Indian carriers operating 382 weekly flights to 20 destinations across India. India is the single largest destination country in terms of contribution to traffic volumes at DXB with 12.3 million passengers recorded in 2018. Go Air hires former Airbus executive as COO GoAir has hired industry veteran Miranda Mills, a former executive of Airbus and Rolls Royce, as its chief operating officer (COO). Mills will be heading the operations of the Mumbai-headquartered airline that is reportedly planning an initial share sale this year, and will report to MD & CEO Jeh Wadia, the airline said. She will take charge from August.

GoAir plans to double its global footprint

GoAir, has seen an upswing in fortunes at a time when others felt the pinch of fickle turbulences in the airline industry. The company will be receiving delivery of one new A320 Neo every month so as to expand its global routes. "Currently, we are operating on 35 international routes. But from August 1, we will have 77 international flights from India," said Sam Patel, vice president, Network Planning, GoAir. International airfares likely to drop Airfares of Indian carriers to several destinations including the US and Europe are set to come down after the opening up of air space by Pakistan. Air India, Indigo, SpiceJet and Go Air are expected to benefit from the move. Their operational cost would come down and the benefits are expected to be passed on to the customer. "The Jet Airways was going through a crisis when Pakistan had closed the air space in February. So it was a double-whammy for the aviation sector. Between then and now airfares have gone up by 25 to 30 per cent," said Kapil Goswamy, MD, Big Breaks.com.

UDAN scheme: Durgapur airport is the latest on map, Check other routes

Under the Regional Connectivity Scheme or Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN), the latest airport to find the place is Durgapur on the UDAN map. 12 routes under the UDAN scheme have recently become functional, taking the total operational routes to 186, including 8 Tourism RCS routes, of the total 706 sanctioned routes, according to an official statement. Durgapur airport is now the 40th airport to become functional under the scheme.

United Airlines Resuming Service Between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai United Airlines announced it is resuming its daily nonstop service between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai on 6^th September (eastbound), and 7^th September (Westbound) with Boeing 787-9 aircraft. United's Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella stated “We are excited to get back to connecting our customers and our employees to India as our teams prepare to restart our daily service to both Delhi and Mumbai. We're looking forward to beginning our third daily nonstop flight to India this December.”   Acumen Aviation © 22 July 2019 All Rights Reserved.