The US Air force has announced that the Boeing 747-8i will serve as the next presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One. The decision, made official through a Determinations and Findings document, authorizes the commercial aircraft purchase by other than full and open competition. The Air Force intends to purchase three numbers of the aircraft platform as well as …

It was inevitable. Singapore Airlines and Vistara (Tata-SIA) have announced a partnership between their KrisFlyer and Club Vistara frequent flyer programmes. The partnership enables KrisFlyer members to earn and redeem miles on Vistara flights and Club Vistara members can earn and redeem points on Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights. The accrual of miles and points for members of both frequent …

Dubai International airport (IATA: DXB) has officially become the world’s busiest international airport dethroning long time leader London’s Heathrow airport. As the the year-end traffic report released by airport operator Dubai Airports, in 2014 Dubai handled 70,475,636 passengers up 6.1 from the 66,431,533 passengers recorded a year earlier. In December, which sees significant holiday traffic, the airport saw 6,498,573 passengers …

National carrier Malaysia Airlines suffered a DNS poisoning attack where visitors who typed in the airline’s website address www.malaysiaairlines.com were re-directed to a hacker site. However the carrier said all the passenger data remains secure. In a statement the airline said At this stage, Malaysia Airlines’ web servers are intact. The airline has resolved the issue with its service provider …

Vistara (Tata-SIA) has announced that it will begin operations on two new routes, the first to Goa from 20th February and then to Hyderabad from 1st March, 2015. The airline began it’s operations in India earlier this month on 9th January. Vistara currently has a fleet of three Airbus A320s and aims to have a fleet size of five by March. Read our …

National carrier Air India finds itself in a jumbo-sized problem. It has a huge excess of wide-body ‘jumbo’ and ‘mini-jumbo’ aircraft used for international flights, while facing a severe shortage of narrow body aircraft leaving it unable to capitalise on the increased winter demand and the additional demand shying away from SpiceJet due to the latter’s financial troubles. The current …

India’s largest private airline, Jet Airways, has taken a leaf out of the playbook of many international carriers and introduced a new initiative to waive penalty fees for cancellations made within 24 hours of bookings made on their website. A very smart and passenger friendly move which deserves congratulations. The new initiative is limited to bookings made on the airline’s …

The announcement at the Bombay stock exchange by SpiceJet Ltd. says it all. Spicejet Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on January 15, 2015, inter-alia, has taken on record the proposal of the principal shareholder and Promoter, Mr. Kalanithi Maran and KAL Airways Private Limited to transfer the ownership, management …

National carrier Air India will introduce a daily direct daily service between New Delhi and Vijayawada from tomorrow, January 15, 2015 which will be the second service on the route. Presently the carrier flies on a one-stop flight via Hyderabad. The new flight AI459 departs New Delhi at 06:20 and arrives Vijayawada at 08:25 The return flight AI460 departs Vijayawada …

Air India’s newest Boeing 777-200LR VT-ALH Maharashtra has finally flown after a gap of over 31 months after it was in storage since March 29, 2012. The test flight AI555 took off from Mumbai’s Chhatrapathi Shivaji airport around 13:20 on Friday, January 9, 2015 and performed a series of race track circuits for about 100 minutes (1h40m) before returning at …

Today morning, I flew the inaugural flight of India’s newest full service airline, Vistara, the brand name for Tata-SIA Airlines, the joint venture between India’s most respected conglomerate the Tatas, and Singapore Airlines. Indira Gandhi international (DEL) to Chhatrapati Shivaji international (BOM). UK890. Depart 12:30 Arrive 14:45. All times local. Airbus A320-200. VT-TTB. Seat 7D. 09-January-2015. Check In – New …