Flights to Mumbai, Delhi launched by SpiceJet

SpiceJet is connecting Chennai and Mysore (via Bangalore) and Puducherry and Bangalore with direct flights.The airline is also connecting Mysore with other metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi while Puducherry will be connected to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata.Booking of tickets for these destinations are open now and commercial flights will commence from January 14 and January 17, to Mysore and Puducherry respectively, the airline said.

For these routes, the airline would be deploying Bombardier Q400 aircraft. The aircraft can accommodate 78 passengers.Mysore is the fifth destination of SpiceJet in Karnataka. At present, the airline operates from Bangalore, Mangalore, Hubli and Belgaum. In its endeavour to connect more tier-II and tier-III destinations, SpiceJet is also connecting Puducherry with Bangalore.SpiceJet, with 19.5 per cent of market share in the Indian domestic market, currently operates more than 330 daily flights to 39 Indian cities and six international destinations.

Oman Air launch flights to Delhi

Oman Air , the national carrier of Sultanate of Oman, has announced the launch dates of double daily flights to New Delhi and Chennai in India and increased its frequency to Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan effective from January 1.While some flights will be in operation from January 1, others will be launched from February 1, an official of Oman Air said.The addition of flights was made possible with the recent signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the aviation authorities of India and Pakistan. Starting January 1, Oman Air has increased its frequency to Chennai by four flights and to Delhi by one flight.

Six more flights to Delhi will be added from February 1. For Chennai, three more flights will be added from February 1. Till December 2012, it was operating seven flights a week to both the destinations.The additional flight effective January 1 for Chennai is in operation on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, while the additional flight to Delhi will operate on Sunday," the official said. But, from February 1, the national carrier will operate double daily flights from Muscat to Chennai and Muscat to Delhi all seven days a week.

Oman Air has started seven flights a week to Lahore in Pakistan, from January 1. Earlier, it was four flights a week. The additional flights to Lahore will operate on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Oman Air has also increased its frequency to Islamabad in Pakistan by three flights effective January 1. Earlier, it used fly three times a week. The additional flights will be operated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. "From February 1, we will add on one more flight to Islamabad on Sunday making it a daily flight," the official added. The MoU signed in the last week of November 2012 between Omani and Indian aviation authorities paved the way for increasing the number of seats offered by airlines from India and Oman to 16,016 per week, up from 11,550.

After the signing of the MoU, it was agreed that Oman Air will divide these seats over 14 weekly flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, seven to Bengaluru, Calicut, Jaipur, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Lucknow, in addition to six weekly flights to Goa. "With this announcement, only the launch dates of Goa remains to be announced," a travel agent based in Muscat said.With Pakistan, Oman has signed an agreement where they have decided that they can increase the number of seats between Oman and Karachi airport to 2,600. Further, 16 weekly flights will be launched to a number of cities in the north of Pakistan, including Lahore, Peshawar, Sialkot and Multan. There will be seven weekly flights to Islamabad and seven flights to Turbat.

Kingfisher Airline resume all flights from Sunday

After grounding all its flights for three days, Kingfisher Airlines scrambled back to the city with an ATR flight on Tuesday afternoon. Though the flight 24 passengers flew to Dhaka and 25 returned was no more than a blip in the airport's radar where nearly 180 flights operate daily, it came as a breather for the staff who feared the airline might shut its base in Kolkata.On Wednesday, the airline will operate on the other ATR sectors Bhubaneswar and Aizwal along with Dhaka. Though airline officials remained tightlipped, sources said the ATR flights would be back in operation full time from Wednesday. There are even hints of the airline advancing the re-introduction of Airbus flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangkok. While the airline had earlier said that its flights would be re-introduced from February 29, sources said the flights could be restarted from February 26 subject to availability of aircraft.

While the airline had no option but to restart ATR operations after DGCA chief E K Bharat Bhushan summoned Kingfisher Airlines CEO Sanjay Aggarwal and other top officials to explain how they planned to get the crisis-ridden carrier back on track, the decision to restart Airbus operations ahead of schedule was also forced when Air India decided not to accept endorsements by Kingfisher Airlines. With the carrier now required to reimburse the passengers in cash, the airline top brass realized it needed to get the planes off the ground to stop bleeding.Till Tuesday evening, the national carrier was the only one that was accepting passengers booked on Kingfisher flights after furnishing endorsement documents. But with Kingfisher suspended by the clearing house of Geneva-based International Air Transport Association that adjusts payments between airlines for carrying each other's passengers and the airline not issuing any firm commitment on repayment, AI decided to play safe rather than be sorry.

"We are not accepting any document from Kingfisher as far as passenger endorsement is concerned," the statement read. Sources said the decision had been taken following Kingfisher's reluctance to commit on repayment to AI for bailing out the passengers in distress. "AI is not ready to take a financial risk. Passengers can get their refund from Kingfisher and buy tickets directly from AI, the official said.Kingfisher Airlines is already reeling from cash flow problems following the freezing of its bank accounts by the IT department.Freezing of the accounts has severely affected our ability to make operational payments leading to the present curtailment. We are in dialogue with tax authorities to agree a payment plan and get the bank accounts unfrozen at the earliest. We are appealing to them to see reason that inconvenience to the travelling public is not in anybody's interests. Employee salaries can be paid and grounded aircraft recovered quicker once the bank accounts are unfrozen and the schedule restored on priority, a senior Kingfisher official said.

The DGCA chief, on Tuesday, asked the Kingfisher CEO to file a realistic schedule within 24 hours.The airlines will have to file a new schedule instead of a truncated one in the next 24 hours,DGCA chief EK Bharat Bhushan said after grilling Aggarwal on the spate of flight cancellations that had left passengers stranded all over the country.At present, only 28 of the 64 aircraft in its fleet are in operation. With this, the airline can do around 175 flights daily, down from 400 flights for which the airline had sought permission during the current winter schedule (November to March).

50 flights delayed due to fog

A sudden drop in visibility at the IGI Airport in two spells on Monday saw three flights diverted to Jaipur and about 50 delayed by 15 minutes to an hour. Met officials say that while shallow fog is expected to occur on Tuesday as well, with visibility likely to come down to 300m, no significant change in weather is expected before January 11.The western disturbance that caused rain over Delhi is moving away. Strong northwesterly winds, that are quite cold, are blowing over the plains of northwest India and will bring down the minimum temperature by a few degrees. However, not much change is expected in the maximum temperature. The day will remain clear and there is no possibility of rain as of now, said RK Jenamani, director in-charge, IGI Met.

At the airport, visibility fell for the first time due to dense fog at 3am. The runway visual range (RVR) dropped on the main runway to 100m, which was under maintenance at that time. A Jet Airways plane and a Kingfisher flight, both coming from Dubai, were diverted. The situation improved an hour later, but at 7am visibility dropped to CAT-III levels again.Monday's temperature dropped slightly from a day earlier, but was still on the higher side. The maximum temperature was down to 22 degrees Celsius while the minimum dipped to 10.6, two degrees above normal.The maximum temperature was 2-6 degrees above normal over several parts of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Orissa and Gangetic West Bengal on Monday. With the WD now moving away, rain and snow will occur over parts of J&K till Tuesday and then decrease. Some areas in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will also see some snow. The minimum temperature will drop by 2-3 degrees over plains of northwest India,said a Met official.

Kenya Airways to add flights to Mumbai

Flights to Africa is set to get more exciting. Kenya Airways, which flies Mumbai-Nairobi, is looking to introduce a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the route in 2014.Besides, KQ (the official moniker for the airline) plans to expand presence in India in a big way by increasing frequencies from Mumbai and Delhi, perhaps this year, and adding other destinations over the next few years.

KQ operates from 56 destinations across the globe and with the acquisition of new aircraft we hope to expand our operations substantially to Europe and within Africa. India and China are particularly our focus as they are growing markets, chief executive officer of KQ, Titus Naikuni, told DNA.India is without doubt a focus area for KQ. We are hoping to double our frequency from Mumbai and Delhi. The Dreamliner boasts of the latest technology in the industry and a distinctly upgraded flying experience. We are very excited about it,said Bennet Stephens, KQ’s area manager India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.Media reports in Nairobi claimed KQ is planning to open six new destinations in India and China each, but Stephens did not confirm it. “Other destinations from India are on the anvil but not in the immediate future, he said.

Air India start flight to Dubai

Air India will start flying to international destinations from Visakhapatnam with first flight to Dubai via Hyderabad scheduled to take off on March 27.Addressing a press conference here today, Rajya Sabha member T Subbarami Reddy said that the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Ajit Singh would inaugurate the first flight.

He said he has already discussed with the Union Government the proposal for modernisation of the airport here and for night landing facility.Against just one flight in 1999, the airport here now handles 40 services connecting Delhi, Kolkota, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Tirupathi, he said adding he would try to bring more airliners like Spicejet, Indigo and Air Arabia to operate flights to and from Visakhapatnam.

Air India increases Delhi-Goa flights

National carrier Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air on Friday said that it is increasing the number of its flights from the national capital to Goa to meet the increased tourist demand in the sector during the holiday season.Alliance Air will be operating additional flights on the Delhi-Goa-Delhi sector from Dec 22 to Jan 10, 2012 to meet the increased demand during the holiday season,the company said in a statement.

According to the company, the flights would be operated on a CRJ regional jet which has a capacity of 70 passengers.This service will be in addition to Air India's existing daily Airbus A321 flight between Delhi and Goa via Mumbai,the statement added.Earlier, the airline had also started a direct flight between Delhi and Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with a stopover at Bhubaneswar in Orissa.These steps like increasing frequencies or starting a new service to new destinations is done keeping in mind the increase in tourist and holiday traffic, an Air India official told IANS.

The airline had also increased passenger capacity on the Delhi-Guwahati route by starting a new flight service.The statement added that a variety of fares would be made available on the new service, including special promotional fares and fares to stimulate leave travel concession flying.

More international flights begin from New Year

In a development which will cheer up the travel industry, at least two new international flights beginning the New Year will start services from the 'underutilized' Sanganer airport here.The Thai Orient airlines based in Thailand and the Silk Air of Singapore have showed keen interest in operating from the Pink City,Sanganer airport director R K Singh said.Both the airlines have already completed their preliminary survey on the feasibility of this market.

The newly constructed Jaipur airport offers many facilities required for operating international flights. Both airlines have found suitable conditions for their operations,Singh said.They found that a good number of Jaipur-based businessmen settled in South Asian countries. In the absence of any direct flight, they travelled either from Delhi or Mumbai to reach Thailand and Bangkok.Both the operators are low-cost airlines and have extensive experience in providing air service among the South Asian countries.The conditions here are very ideal as both the airlines are left with one or more destinations to start operations in India.Under the bilateral ties with the ministry of external affairs, every airline has been given number of destinations to operate within India. Luckily, both the airlines have one each destination left for their operation in India," a source said.

IndiGo launch flights from south Indian cities of Thiruvananthapuram

MUSCAT India’s budget carrier IndiGo will launch flights from the south Indian cities of Thiruvananthapuram, Cochin and Chennai by December, said IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh. It will launch its Muscat-Mumbai flight, with four flights a week, from October 10, with a promotional return fare of 88 rials.Announcing this at a press conference at Chedi Hotel on Wednesday, Ghosh said the move was part of its initiative to expand operations to international skies. Muscat will be the fourth international destination on IndiGo’s growing network.

He said it was only natural that in due course of time Indigo should connect three key south Indian cities to Muscat as the percentage of expatriates from south India, especially from Kerala, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh, was the highest.I’m sure that by December, flights to the three additional cities will be operational.Muscat is a key market for us and the large Indian population in Oman will be able to experience Indigo’s product offerings. The airline is committed towards providing affordable fares to the growing market of regular travellers in Oman and also increase daily flights in future. We are working with the concerned authorities to get additional rights to cater to the growing India-Oman traffic.

Ghosh said: “We hope to create the same magic and success in the international market and look forward to a great experience with our customers. It is our constant endeavour to make the journey hassle-free for our customers and provide them high-quality travel experience at the best yet affordable prices.He said IndiGo recently launched its international services with daily and direct flights from Delhi to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore. He said direct flights to Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore from Mumbai would commence from October 2.Corporate and leisure travellers will have the opportunity to experience the matchless, on-time performance IndiGo is synonymous with in Indian skies.

IndiGo is India’s second largest airline with a market share of 19.6 per cent in June 2011, as well as the country’s largest low-fare carrier. It is the fastest growing low-cost carrier in the world (source: CAPA) with a simple philosophy: Offer fares that are always low, flights that are on time, and a courteous, hassle-free travel experience.According to Ghosh, IndiGo’s On-Time Performance is one of the best in India. Its Technical Dispatch Reliability is 99.91 per cent making it the airline with the least number of cancellations in India. With its fleet of 44 new Airbus A320 aircraft, the airline offers 265 daily flights connecting 29 destinations.

Gulf Air increases flights to destinations of Indian

As part of the new winter schedule, Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air increased its flights to key destinations in the Indian sub-continent Chennai, Kathmandu and Dhaka. In addition, the airline has also modified its Delhi double-daily flight timings to provide greater connectivity via Bahrain.Announcing the winter schedule that will come into effect from 30 October, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Mr Karim Makhlouf said, “The Indian sub-continent has seen an impressive performance in the past few months with load factors reaching as much as 85%. This has clearly indicated the need for us to augment our fleet and frequency to some of the key destinations in the region.

“With the addition of Nairobi, Copenhagen, Geneva and Milan to our network recently,the travel patterns of our customers also indicated that they are looking for better connectivity to these destinations via Bahrain. Accordingly, we have made changes to our schedule increasing flights to Chennai, Kathmandu and Dhaka while we modified our Delhi flight schedule for better connectivity.Our aim is simple; we will offer our customers the best network of destinations, excellent connectivity to different market segments, newer aircraft, consistent and high quality products and above all, a real value-for-money to our customers,Mr. Makhlouf concluded.

Winter schedule highlights

Flights to Chennai increased from seven to nine weekly flightsFlights to Chennai have been operating close to 85% seat factor. To meet the increase in demand, two weekly flights are being added departing Bahrain at 12:50 pm and arriving back by 11:55 pm on Wednesdays and Sundays respectively, thus providing excellent connectivity across the Gulf Air network, in particular to Europe. The new additional two-way connectivity to new destinations such as Paris, Copenhagen, Geneva, Frankfurt, Khartoum and Addis Ababa.Delhi new standardized double daily schedule creating better connectivity for Africa and Europe

From the start of the winter season, Delhi’s schedule will be standardized with a double daily schedule departing Bahrain at 2:30 pm and 10:40 pm respectively with arrivals back into Bahrain at 07:35 am and 11:35 pm respectively. This in turn, enables all of Gulf Air’s European routes to be perfectly connected via Bahrain in both directions to and from Delhi. In addition, other markets regaining two-way connections to/from Delhi include Addis Ababa, Khartoum and Nairobi.

Mumbai flight timings modified to connect more destinations

The daily flights between Mumbai and Bahrain have been modified to depart at 18:45 to arrive in Bahrain at 20:10 so that business and leisure travellers get better connectivity to Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Khartoum, GCC and European destinations via Bahrain.

Kathmandu flights become double daily

Kathmandu has also seen exceptional performance in 2011, where for the winter season, the flights have been increased from 12 weekly flights to double daily using an Airbus A320. During the peak season months of December and January, some flights will be operated with larger Airbus A330 to meet the high demand of the period. With this increase, the capital of Nepal is conveniently connected on a daily basis with all of Gulf Air’s European routes and on a double daily basis to the key high volume markets in the GCC and Dammam. The new markets in the winter 2011 season connected to Nepal in both directions include Cairo, Istanbul, Nairobi and Beirut.

Dhaka increased from 10 to 11 weekly flights

Flights to Dhaka have also been increased from 10 to 11, while the schedule has been modified to provide connectivity to key high volume markets via Bahrain in both directions such as Dammam, Beirut and Kuwait. There will be six flights per week departing Bahrain at 08:15 pm and five flights per week departing at 11:30 am respectively. Other routes that would greatly benefit from these increased frequencies to Dhaka include Riyadh, London, Cairo, Larnaca, Jeddah, Athens, Frankfurt and Copenhagen.

Indian carrier to add Abu Dhabi and Sharjah to its network next year

India's biggest budget carrier IndiGo will rope in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah in its network by next year, following the launch of daily services to Dubai on September 1, and Muscat in October, officials said at a press briefing yesterday.The airline will first start flights to Dubai from Delhi in September and then operate Mumbai-Dubai flights from October onwards, Aditya Ghosh, President IndiGo, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the press briefing.

The airline is offering a return fare on Delhi-Dubai route for Dh816 or Rs9,999. The first 6E 12 flight from Dubai will fly out from the Dubai International Airport to New Delhi, with convenient and hassle-free flying options.Aditya Ghosh said,Dubai is a key market for us and launching operations in this market is in line with our growth strategy outlined for the Middle Eastern skies. IndiGo will keep its promise of providing low fares on international routes as well.

Flights to Delhi and Mumbai

IndiGo, India's second biggest domestic carrier, will offer daily Singapore-Delhi flights from Sept 15.AIR fares to the key Indian cities of Delhi and Mumbai are set to tumble by more than half as the first budget carrier muscles in on the routes.It starts its runs to and from Mumbai the following month, and will add Chennai and Bangalore by early next year.At a Singapore press conference on Tuesday, IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh said he is confident it will expand, rather than cannibalise, the market.

The Singapore-Delhi sector, covered in a 5 1/2-hour flight, is nowserved by India's full-service carriers Air India and Jet Airways, and Singapore Airlines; Singapore-Mumbai is served by five airlines, including Australia's Qantas and India's Kingfisher Airlines.With strong ties between the two countries and a growing expatriate population on both sides, potential exists for growth in the Singapore-India air travel market, Mr Ghosh said, adding: 'I really, truly believe that the market will expand, so I'm not sure that we're looking at eating market share from anyone.'