Category: Aviation

Passengers will soon be able to fly non-stop to San Francisco in the US from Bengaluru. India’s national carrier Air India announced on Wednesday that it will operate flights twice-weekly to the United States from January 11, 2021, from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport. The flight, for which the bookings have commenced from Wednesday, will be operated twice-a-week with a Boeing B777-200 LR aircraft, it said. The new non-stop service – which would be Air India’s longest route at 14,000 Km and longest flight to and from India – is expected to meet the demand of corporate customers for travel to ... Read more

Pakistan’s famous truck art will move from its highways to the skies, as a flying academy is painting a two-seater Cessna aircraft with the colorful technique. Such art has become one of Pakistan’s best-known cultural exports in recent years. UNESCO, for example, has been using truck art, blended with indigenous themes, to promote girls’ education in a northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. With elaborate and flamboyant motifs, Pakistani truck art has inspired gallery exhibitions abroad and prompted stores in Western cities to sell miniatures. “We want to show the world that Pakistan is not all about Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ... Read more

Budget carrier GoAir on Thursday announced the expansion of its services to the UAE with the launch of new flights to Sharjah from Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, and Kannur. Currently, flights to the UAE are operated under an Air Bubble Agreement since international commercial flights to and from India remain suspended from March 23 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It has flights to Dubai in the UAE. GoAir is commencing scheduled direct flights to and from Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, and Kannur to Sharjah under the Air Bubble Agreement effective January 1, it said in a release. The flight schedule ... Read more

Emirates enlisted the help of Arsenal, Real Madrid and AC Milan to surprise its most deserving fans and reconnect them with their favourite football clubs. In a year filled with video calls, it was only apt that Emirates set up one last virtual meeting they would never forget. The unassuming fans joined the teleconference thinking they would be recapping the year and sharing their passion for the sport. They got so much more in return as top players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Toni Kroos and Alessio Romagnoli made surprise appearances via video call and gifted them with Emirates flight tickets and ... Read more

Tata Group on 29th DEC has announced it would increase its holdings in the Indian-based joint venture with AirAsia from 51% to 84%. AirAsia, owned by Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes, has been scaling back its operations during the Covid pandemic. Last week Tata also put in a bid for the country’s struggling national carrier Air India. Tata Group is paying AirAsia around $38m (£28m) for the increased stake in the AirAsia India joint venture which began in 2014. The deal puts the Indian conglomerate firmly in command of the budget carrier. AirAsia has been looking to reduce its cash-burn and ... Read more

Qatar Airways has announced that it will begin incrementally increasing flights to Montréal from 16 January 2021 and operate daily frequencies by 25 February 2021, up from the previously scheduled four weekly frequencies. The Montréal service is operated by Qatar Airways’ state-of-the-art Airbus A350-900 featuring 36 seats in the award-winning Qsuite Business Class and 247 seats in Economy Class. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: “We are delighted to increase our services to Montréal, further enhancing connectivity for our Canadian customers, while offering our passengers traveling to and from North America seamless access to more ... Read more

Vistara, India’s finest full-service carrier, will now allow its customers to directly search and book Vistara flights on Google through the integrated ‘Book on Google’ feature. Following the implementation of the New Distribution Capability (NDC), made possible through a technology partnership with Amadeus, passengers will now be able to seamlessly book Vistara flights while searching for them on Google, without getting redirected to any other website. Commenting on the launch of the new service, Vistara’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Vinod Kannan, said, “Customer centricity is one of our core values and it has been our constant endeavor to offer our ... Read more

There is no better way to enjoy a meal than being surrounded by nature and mesmerizing views. At Indian Hotels Company’s (IHCL) hotels, dining has a fresh destination. The Sky Is Yours offers an inimitable range of open to sky experiences, ranging from breezy alfresco dining to soaking in the serenity of waterside venues to languid sundowners. Myriad dining options across Taj, Vivanta, and SelQtions hotels give guests unique and picturesque outdoor setting options. Guests can immerse themselves in some of the most stunning natural backdrops whilst enjoying sumptuous meals created by our chefs. The Sky Is Yours brings to ... Read more

Emirates has announced that it will be operating its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft on the Dubai – Sao Paulo route between 9 and 30 January 2021. The Emirates A380 will be deployed four times weekly to Sao Paulo in response to the summer season increase in demand for travel to and from Brazil. This will be the first time that the iconic aircraft returns to South America since the suspension of passenger flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Emirates resumed passenger flights to Sao Paulo in August 2020 on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. Customers travelling to and ... Read more

Vistara, India’s finest full-service carrier and a joint venture of Tata group and Singapore Airlines, will operate special, non-stop flights between Mumbai and London Heathrow from 16 January 2021. The airline will operate these special flights thrice a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, complementing its recently-launched service between Delhi and London Heathrow as part of the ‘transport bubble’ agreement between India and the UK. The flights will be operated on Vistara’s brand-new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, offering world-class service and hospitality in Business, Premium Economy, and Economy cabins. Bookings for these flights are being progressively opened on all ... Read more

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons Private Limited and SIA, have signed a Commercial Cooperation Framework Agreement. This agreement will further strengthen SIA’s and Vistara’s existing partnership and enable them to offer seamless services to their customers by harmonising efforts incapacity planning, sales, marketing, joint fare products, customer services and operations. The agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval in Singapore, is an extension of a codeshare partnership that came into effect in 2017. Strengthening the partnership between SIA and Vistara will allow both airlines to achieve further synergies on services between Singapore and India, ... Read more

Passenger numbers at Heathrow fell by 88% in November, as travel restrictions and a second lockdown took their toll. Based on current forecasts and the continued decline in passengers, the decision has been taken for Terminal 4 to remain non-operational until the end of 2021. Heathrow is calling for targeted, sector-specific Government support to protect jobs and help drive the UK’s economic recovery.  These include full business rates relief for all UK airports and abandoning the disastrous “tourist tax” which will make the UK the only country in Europe not to offer tax-free shopping for international visitors. The move is expected ... Read more

Emirates is re-opening its lounges around the world beginning with the Emirates lounge at Cairo International Airport. In the coming weeks, Emirates’ customers can look forward to once again enjoying Emirates lounge services in other destinations including New York’s JFK International and Manchester Airport. The airline has redesigned its lounge offering and introduced additional health and safety measures. The new protocols will be rolled out in each lounge. The buffet offering will be changed to an a la carte service with contactless menus activated by QR code. Throughout the day, lounge staff will sanitize each seat and table after customers ... Read more

While international organizations seek alternatives to conventional ways of travel in a time of great uncertainty, one option is rapidly growing; private air charters. Once thought of as a niche, expensive, and a last-resort kind of commodity, charters are increasingly being sought out for the convenience and protection they provide over commercial flying during a pandemic. Charters are also more time-efficient and they can travel to a wider variety of airports, often getting closer to an eventual destination than if relying on the flights of a scheduled carrier’s route network – especially in an environment with multiple airline failures. Financially, ... Read more

UAE based Emirates Airlines has been recognized as the Best Airline for 2020 at The Sun Travel Awards, and the Best Long-Haul Airline at The Times and The Sunday Times Travel Awards. Following an unprecedented year for travel, hundreds of thousands of votes were cast by readers looking to celebrate the best in the industry. Emirates’ range of world-class products and services onboard its modern, wide-body aircraft helped to secure the award wins, with passengers able to enjoy over 4,500 channels of entertainment on ice – the airline’s award-winning inflight entertainment system – as well as regionally inspired meals and ... Read more