In another demonstration of why Government should not be involved in the operations of national carrier Air India, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani announced the discontinuation of serving non-vegetarian meals in the economy class on all domestic flights. The disclosure made in an interview with The Hindu newspaper invited swift reaction, much of it negative, by many, …
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Just as the cabinet decision for Air India was approved, the unsolicited bid by Indigo caught the entire airline industry by surprise. The surprise factor is perhaps best highlighted by the stock price which took a beating and fell on average by 8% in the two days following the announcement. However, the bid represents a very smart and planned move …
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Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is eliminating its complimentary chauffeur service for its business and first class passengers at all its international destinations. A paid option “at specially negotiated rates” will replace the free service. Economy class passengers can also avail the new paid service, and Etihad Guest members will accrue frequent flier points. The cutback is part of a series …
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Jet Airways is enhancing its existing code-share agreements with Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and Delta Air Lines. All three foreign carriers are anchor members of the Skyteam alliance. The Indian carrier will place code-shares of the three Skyteam airlines on its new flights between Mumbai Paris, Chennai Paris, Bangalore Amsterdam, and its third Mumbai London Heathrow flight. Air …
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This was my first trip on Malaysia Airlines and my first international flight out of India on a narrow body in eight years. Why not fly Bangalore to Singapore direct instead of the roundabout Bangalore – Kuala Lumpur – Singapore? 聽I am a oneworld frequent flier and Malaysia Airlines is a member of the alliance. The other option would have …
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Middle eastern carrier Qatar Airways has stated that operations out of it’s Doha hub are largely unaffected by the gulf ban with the vast majority of flights operating as scheduled. The airline has flown approximately 1,200 flights between Doha and its network in the past week and has said that 90 per cent of those flights departed within 15 minutes …
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Spicejet reported the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016-2017 results on June 3, 2017, a Saturday, not a working day for the financial markets. The timing of the results announcement was as interesting as the results themselves. Overall, the results were below analyst expectations and are reflective of the intensely competitive fare and capacity environment in Indian aviation. Key financial …
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One has to tip their hat to both the air traffic control at Doha as well as Qatar Airways for handling the airspace restrictions imposed by their immediate neighbours Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Yemen in the wake of the cessation of diplomatic relations between these countries and Qatar. As their screen shots from FlightRadar24 …
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Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have severed diplomatic relations with the tiny peninsular state of Qatar claiming the latter’s support of terrorism. The four nations have cut all land, sea and air contacts too. Qatar, which boasts the highest per capita income in the world, shares its sole land border with Saudi Arabia which …
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The Tata Singapore Airlines joint venture Vistara operated the inaugural flight of their brand new Airbus A320neo from New Delhi to Bangalore yesterday morning as flight UK811. The aircraft registered VT-TNB features slight changes in the livery including the Vistara star and A320neo branding on the belly, and a banner along the upper fuselage. Like national carrier Air India, Vistara’s …
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India’s largest private airline, Jet Airways has announced a third flight on the strategic Mumbai London Heathrow route, starting from the winter schedule which commences October 29th. Flight schedule 9W116 departs Mumbai at 09:05 and arrives London Heathrow 13:35. 9W115 departs London Heathrow at 15:30 and arrives Mumbai 05:55 the next morning. The flight will be operated by a three …
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Full service carrier, Vistara has taken delivery of it’s first A320neo (new engine option) at Airbus’ Toulouse plant. The aircraft is the 14th A320 in the carriers fleet and is powered by CFM’s LEAP-1A engines. The airline has equipped it’s neo with mood lighting, improved seats and a new look across all three of it’s cabins. Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO, …
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Earlier this month, on the 9th of May, India’s largest domestic airline Indigo, announced that they had signed a term-sheet with French turbo-prop airframer ATR, for the induction of 50 ATR72-600 regional aircraft. The announcement caught the aviation and investment community completely by surprise. Since its inception 12 years ago in 2005, IndiGo had slavishly adhered to the “one airframe …
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India’s largest domestic airline and low cost carrier IndiGo will launch its Bangalore Singapore direct non-stop flight on June 30th. This will be the second international flight for the carrier originating from Bangalore. It operates a flight to Dubai. The Singapore flight comes close on the heels of full service carrier Jet Airways successfully commencing flights on the Bangalore Singapore …
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Gurugram based low fare carrier SpiceJet is the first airline to use the new electronic board gates at the Kempegowda airport in Bangalore. Spicejet’s departure control system is integrated with the e-Gates and allows passengers to board by self scanning their boarding passes, whether on paper, mobile, or smart watches. The system verifies the pass, and opens the gate is …
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Low cost carrier Indigo has won the Airbus’ award for Best Operational Excellence for the second consecutive year. Indigo won the award after outperforming 46 other airlines globally. The selection criteria for the award is based on data covering two years of operation and taking into consideration the number of aircraft in the fleet, daily utilization rate, technical reliability and …
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US airframer Boeing, delivered the first new 737 MAX aircraft to launch customer Malindo Air of Malaysia. The 737 MAX 8 was delivered at Boeing’s Seattle Delivery Center in Washington state on May 16th. The airline will be the first to operate the 737 MAX in commercial service on May 22. The MAX is the newest variant of the world’s …
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Low cost carrier Indigo has signed a term sheet with French airframer ATR for 50 ATR 72-600 aircraft. The order would be valued at $1.3 billion at list prices. Deliveries of the aircraft will begin towards the end of 2017. Indigo will be able to reduce the number of aircraft on order depending on it’s commercial performance. The order is …
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Ray Gammell has assumed full management responsibilities as the new interim Group CEO of The Etihad Aviation Group (EAG). Current President and Group CEO James Hogan, will formally leave the company on July 1, 2017. Gammell was the Group鈥檚 Chief People & Performance Officer. In parallel Ricky Thirion the current SVP Group Treasurer, takes over full responsibilities of the Group …
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Jet Airways will begin two new flights from Bangalore to Amsterdam and Chennai to Paris from 29 October 2017. The airline will operate these routes with it’s Airbus A330-300 aircraft. These flights will offer codeshare connections on Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Delta Air Lines and will give passengers one stop connections to 35 destinations in Europe and …
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Bangalore Aviation News, Reviews, Analysis and opinions of Indian Aviation