Category: Aviation

Iceland’s low fare transatlantic airline, WOW air, announces the launch of its flight operations in India from December 7, 2018 with incredibly low airfares. The airline is planning weekly direct flights between New Delhi and Keflavik airport in Iceland that will connect to multiple destinations in North America and Europe. “We are thrilled to launch our operations in India, a diverse country with tremendous potential. Our launch is in sync with India’s aviation growth story and we look forward to being part of it with our very affordable fares to North America and Europe on board brand new Airbus A330neos. ... Read more

Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, and Formula 1, the pinnacle of motorsport, announced that they have renewed and expanded their partnership until the end of 2022. Emirates has been an F1 Global Partner since 2013, and the renewed agreement will see the airline enjoy an expanded branding and consumer activation presence at over 15 races on the FIA Formula One World Championship calendar across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America. The renewed agreement, which came into effect at the start of the current 2018 season in March with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, also includes Emirates ... Read more

Emirates, the largest international airline in the world, announced it will start a daily service between Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh, and Dubai, from 1 October 2018. Edinburgh will become Emirates’ second destination in Scotland after Glasgow and its 8th in the United Kingdom after the airline starts its daily service to London Stansted in June. The new service will be operated by an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER in a three class cabin configuration, with 8 private suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class and 304 spacious seats in Economy Class. The Scottish capital, with its Old Town ... 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

GoAir and AirAsia are offering discounted domestic flight tickets starting at Rs 1,610 and Rs 1,399 respectively on select routes. This offer is a part of GoAir’s ‘Low Fare Wednesday’ promotional campaign. GoAir’s offer is applicable on flights to destinations such as Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Lucknow. All fares offered under the scheme are applicable till May 25, 2018. Under the ‘Low Fare Wednesday’ scheme, GoAir is offering flights ‘to destinations with affordable flight tickets’. AirAsia India’s ‘Mid-Summer Sale’ offer is applicable on destinations including Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ranchi.  This offer on domestic flights is applicable on travel till ... Read more

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is offering 5 nights/6 days ‘Shri Ramayana Yatra-Sri Lanka Ex Delhi’ tour package at a starting price of Rs 47,600. The tour dates of the package are June 12, August 25, September 18, October 2, November 20 and December 15, 2018. According to the official website of IRCTC Tourism, the destinations covered under this package are Negombo, Kandy, Nuwara Ellya and Colombo. The trip provided by SriLankan airlines, will start from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. The flight will leave at 6:35 pm from Delhi and will reach Colombo at 10:10 pm. On ... Read more

IndiGo is offering discounts for students above the age of 12 years on domestic flights. The customers can only avail the offer if the booking is made at least seven days in advance. For bookings made under the scheme, students are eligible for total baggage allowance of 25 kilograms. The discount is valid on both, one-way and round-trip bookings. Eligible student booking flight tickets under the scheme shall be required to furnish their valid school/ university ID card at the time of check-in at the airport. In case, the student fails to furnish their ID Card, the benefits will not be extended to the ... Read more

It was a surprise when Uber announced that it has plans to launch flight demonstrations of uberAIR in Dallas-Fort Worth/Frisco Texas and Los Angeles. But now, with important partnerships with key manufacturers and technology companies, the cab aggregator  is all set to make further inroads into the aviation sector. Uber plans to launch the flight demonstrations in 2020 and commercial trips by the year 2023. Uber launched its Elevate programme in October 2016. Since then, it has entered into partnerships with experienced aircraft manufacturers who are developing electric VTOL vehicles including: Embraer, Bell, Aurora Flight Sciences (now a subsidiary of Boeing), ... Read more

As part of its expansion plans to reach out to European countries, Air India is planning to start a direct flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt from June. The airline is likely to operate thrice a week from Mumbai and depart for Frankfurt in the morning hours. Air India currently operates a regular flight on the Delhi-Frankfurt route. Air India flies directly to destinations such as Stockholm, Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, Birmingham and Milan in Europe. The state-run airline had recently announced that they would increase the frequency between Delhi-Copenhagen to four days a week as part of its efforts to ... Read more

Planning to vacation outside this planet? We’ve been hearing about space tourism for long and reports suggest that it could soon turn out be a reality, perhaps this year itself. Virgin Galactic headed by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin are the two companies which could take us beyond this planet. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two had a successful first powered test flight in April. To add to the excitement, Blue Origin had another successful test launch of its New Shepard rocket on April 29th. This is why 2018 is rumoured to be the year of space trips. The Virgin ... Read more

It is reported that the aviation sector in India, currently growing at nearly 28 per cent, will see an investment of close to Rs 1 lakh cr in the next five years for capacity augmentation and development of new greenfield airports, according to Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha. The Aviation ministry is planning to achieve 1 billion passenger trips per annum within the next 15-20 years. “The capacity addition will come with other amenities such as use of digital technology for passenger verification and bringing about a paradigm shift in airport designs,” said the minister. The Airport ... Read more

To boost the tourism sector, Himachal government is planning to encourage ‘Heli-Taxi’ services at major tourist destinations, a senior official said today. Presiding over a meeting of the officials of aviation companies including Pawan Hans Limited, Skyone Airways, Ind Jet and hospitality players, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Manisha Nanda said at present the state has three functional airports at Gaggal, Shimla and Bhuntar. “Work was in progress to facilitate the tourists and common people at Rampur and Jhakri in Shimla, Baddi in district Solan, Pandoh in Mandi and Manali in Kullu under Uddan-II scheme,” she said. Manisha ... Read more

As a part of expansion and attracting more tourists to Kingdom of Bahrain, Gulf Air, flag carrier of Bahrain is set to undergo rebranding and the new brand identity was unveiled at the VIP event marking the beginning of Gateway Gulf Investor Forum Bahrain 2018. Gulf Air launched the worldwide exclusive premiere of its outdoor 3D projection #yearofchange video at one of the topmost projections in the world, on the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Bay. The video will soon be displayed across the airline’s network. The event was carried out under the backing of Shaikh Khalid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, ... Read more

SriLankan Airlines  said its traffic went up 48 per cent from Delhi and 24 per cent from Mumbai “mainly daily due to the capacity additions effected from these stations,” said Chinthaka Weerasinghe, Manager – North & Eastern India, SriLankan Airlines. The airline has introduced two daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai stations to Colombo last year. “It is genuine leisure traffic which is largely point to point filling up our aircraft from North and West. The load factors are in the range of 85 to 90 per cent from these regions,” he said. Overall, India is the top source market for tourism ... Read more

Cusco Three weekly non-stop flights have been announced by LATAM Airlines Peru which will connect Santiago, Chile and Cusco, Peru. Airbus A319 aircraft will be operating the route which will have a capacity to fly 144 passengers, with a total of 45,051 seats offered in a year. The service beginning on August 15th will have services on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. The tickets are already on sale. The LATAM Airlines Peru flight (LA2366) will depart from Santiago on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at 15:35 (local time), and will arrive at Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport at 17:00 the same day. ... Read more