Tag: Aviation

Gulf carrier Oman Air stated on Tuesday that it is in discussions with the Indian government for increasing the weekly seat entitlement to enable expansion of its services in the rapidly growing aviation market. The Oman’s flagship carrier, which has completed 25 years into the business, at present, operates 161 flights per week to eleven Indian cities, utilising the 27,000 seats allocated to airlines from each country. Oman is seeking an increase in seats and access to Ahmedabad and Kolkata, which will boost its Indian presence. Seat entitlements and access to destinations are negotiated between respective governments. “We are working with ... Read more

New Beijing Airport The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) aims to construct 216 new airports by 2035 to meet the growing demands for air travel. China had a total of 234 civil airports at the end of October, and this number is likely to hit 450 by 2035. This is part of China’s ambition to become an aviation power, reported Reuters. As per statistics, demand for passenger air transportation in China will surpass the US by 2035, representing almost one-quarter of the world’s total flights. Airports in China managed 552 million travellers last year, which is expected to grow ... Read more

Cambodia and Nepal signed their first air service agreement (ASA), which allows 14 weekly flights between both countries, according to Cambodia’s State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA). The agreement was made during Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s official three-day visit to Kathmandu, Nepal last week, during which he also attended the Asia-Pacific Summit. “Nepal has become the 45th country to have an ASA with Cambodia. Passengers travel to Nepal currently needs to make a connecting flight to Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore” said  Sinn Chanserey Vutha, SSCA spokesman. Vutha said the deal is an opening air service for airlines from both ... Read more

IndiGo has put up 10 lakh seats up for grabs as part of its winter sale offer, and flight tickets start from Rs 899 on IndiGo’s domestic route are in the latest sale. Under the same discount offer, IndiGo is also offering tickets from Rs 3,199 on overseas routes. Bookings for IndiGo’s Rs 899 offer, which started from November 21, will close on November 25. This sale is applicable for travel between December 06, 2018 and April 15, 2019. This offer will also be available across all IndiGo’s distribution channels. Currently, IndiGo operates over 1300 daily flights and connects 49 ... Read more

Karipur Airport has been reinstated as an embarkation point for Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, 2019. It was informed by Alphons KJ, Union Minister of State for Tourism. Earlier, the embarkation point was changed from Kozhikode to Cochin airport following the runway enhancement works in Kozhikode. In a press release on Friday, 26th October, the minister stated that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Minister for Minority Affairs, took the decision following his request to reinstate Kozhikode airport’s status as an embarkation point for Hajj. Now, pilgrims from Kerala will have a choice to opt either Cochin or Kozhikode as an ... Read more

Commercial flight operations resumed in Kochi  today, 20th August 2018, morning from the INS Garuda naval air station.  An Alliance Air flight, which took off from Bengaluru, was the first flight landed in the naval airstrip.  Alliance Air is a subsidiary of the state-run carrier Air India. Other airlines are also likely to fly to Kochi. A joint team of the centre and the civil aviation ministry gave the go-ahead for the flight operations at the Navy’s air station in Kochi, since the Kochi International Airport has been closed followed by rain and flood in the state. The airport will remain ... Read more

Wide body aircrafts can now operate from Calicut airport. The application from Saudi Airlines has been approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, allowing them to operate wide body aircrafts. The airport was partially closed on May 1, 2015, after the Airport Authority of India (AAI) banned operation of wide-bodied aircrafts including Boeing 777 and B747-400 and Airbus 330 for the runway re-carpeting, to ensure safety of passengers. A convoy of Kerala MPs have visited the Union Aviation Minister several times to seek permission for making the airport fully functional. Revamping works of the runways to facilitate operation of ... Read more

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday held wide-ranging talks with her Bahrain counterpart Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed al Khalifa during which they discussed ways to expand cooperation in a number of fields including tourism, oil and gas, petrochemicals, security, defense and intelligence training. In a joint statement after the meeting they said that “The wide-ranging discussions were held in a friendly and forward-looking atmosphere, with useful exchanges of views on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest,” The two sides discussed in detail various aspects of bilateral relations. Expansion of cooperation of in the fields of tourism,  education, ... Read more

After four long months, the Agra-Jaipur flight of Air India will start flying again from July 16th albeit at a changed time. The flight will be operating four days a week. The flight will be operated on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The flight will take off from Jaipur at 6:50 am and land in Agra at 8 am. The return flight will take off from Agra at 8:30 am and land in Jaipur at 9:30 am. Air India has scheduled the ATR-72 aircraft for this route instead of the ATR-48 it was flying earlier due to the heavy seat occupancy ... Read more

Kuwait International Airport has opened a new terminal building (T4) with an aim to increase capacity to 25 million passengers by 2022. Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah launched the new terminal earlier this week. T4, which was planned and built within two years, is a 14-gate facility which is designed to handle an extra 4.5 million passengers annually. “Passenger numbers are expected to each 40 million annually by 2037, creating annual income of no less than $800 million and about 40,000 jobs,” Sheikh Salman  Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, director general of the country’s civil aviation authority. The new ... Read more

“Non-participation of Kannur Airport in the UDAN scheme is due to the possible loss of income for our state,” said Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarai Vjayan. He was delivering his keynote at the MP’s meet in Thiruvananthapuram. “If we are part of the UDAN scheme, only one aviation company can operate in a particular route. It will adversely affect Kannur Airport, which is striving to be one of the best airports in India. The union ministry has assured to complete all the formalities related to the airport by 15th August,” he added. The inauguration of the airport is scheduled in ... Read more

The Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu has said that the Kannur airport will be provided with all possible help to make it fully operational by September this year. After meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Prabhu has directed Chairman, Airport Authority of India and other officials from the Ministry to take all possible steps to make Kannur Airport as a point of call for foreign airlines. During the meeting, the Kerala Chief Minister has requested for the intervention of Civil Aviation Minister for granting permission to foreign airlines to operate from Kannur and direct Indian airlines to operate ... Read more

Privatisation of the maintenance of airport terminals was a plan initiated by the previous UPA government, which has faced a roadblock as the employee unions started protesting against the move. The current plan is to privatise at least eight government-owned airports — Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Guwahati. The civil aviation ministry is believed to be having discussions on designing the model on how the airports would be bid out and is likely the airports will be bid out for 30 years and the tariffs will be fixed upfront. Under the two models being examined, one is ... Read more

Air France announced that it will extend its Cork to Paris Charles de Gaulle service for the winter 2018/2019 season, linking Ireland’s South to the French capital, while also offering onward connections to up to 180 destinations worldwide. The Cork to Paris service is a new route on the Air France network, due to commence operation from 26 May 2018. The service, which was announced in January was originally scheduled to run through to the end of the summer season, finishing on 27 October. However, due to positive forward bookings, the route has now been extended to a yearly service. ... Read more

Fiji Airways and Alaska Airlines have expanded their current partnership by signing a codeshare agreement on flights from San Francisco to two popular US cities. The codeshare agreement enables Fiji Airways to place its “FJ” code on Alaska Airlines’ flights from SFO to Seattle (SEA) and Portland (PDX), offering Fiji Airways guests seamless connections to these cities via San Francisco, and vice-versa for Alaska Airlines’ guests. The codeshare flights will be available for sale from March 5th 2018. Both airlines have an existing frequent flyer partnership, where members of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program earn and redeem miles for travel ... Read more