Now, early evening flight to Mumbai

Beginning Saturday, air passengers will have a reason to smile as a new flight begins its service. The flight will leave Nagpur at 7.15
pm and land in Mumbai at 8.30 pm. Jet Airways has replaced its regular flights with the low-cost JetLite.

The evening JetLite 144-capacity Boeing aircraft will take off from Mumbai at 5.25 pm and land in Nagpur at 6.45 pm.

In the morning, the 168-capacity Boeing aircraft will depart from Mumbai at 7 am and arrive in Nagpur at 8.25 am. The Mumbai-bound flight will depart from Nagpur at 8.55 am and reach Mumbai at 10.10 am, informed a senior JetLite official.

Both the morning and evening flights will be operated with minimum airfare of Rs 3125 (including taxes). JetLite will offer airfares in four slabs with lowest being Rs 3,175 and Rs 3,325, Rs 3,475 and Rs 3,645, the official added. The other airlines operating in Mumbai sector like Air India (departure 8.45 pm) and Indigo (8.40 pm) departs late in night and reach Mumbai after 10 pm, putting passengers to inconvenience many times.

Both the morning and evening flights for November 1, have received overwhelming response from passengers as almost 120 seats in morning flight and 85 in evening flight were booked a day before the launch (on Friday).

“The fares charged by JetLite during the period of rising airfares are comparatively less than the other airlines,” the official claimed.

Said the official, “All our flights have incurred heavy losses for some months now on both Mumbai and Delhi route. There is no response from passengers to 20-seat capacity business class option in regular flights for Mumbai. Thus, the company decided to introduce all economy class flights on Mumbai route.”

Meanwhile, Jet Airways while introducing low cost option on Mumbai route has decided to discontinue its evening flight to and from New Delhi from Saturday for next few months.

The official further added, “Company has plans to introduce low-cost JetLite option for Delhi route too in near future. After going through the response of passengers on Mumbai flights, the Delhi flights will be introduced.”

Source://indiatimes.com

Austrian cancels flights to Mumbai from 1 March 2009

Austrian Airlines is to cease operating its service to the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) from 1 March 2009 onwards.

As a result of drastic overcapacity between European airports and the city in southwestern India, the weakening Indian economy and the consequences of the crisis in European financial markets, it is no longer possible to operate this route profitably in the medium term. The measure means that one more of the airline’s total of six Boeing 767 aircraft will no longer be deployed on long-haul routes. The question of how to use the aircraft freed up by the decision remains open at present.

This necessary capacity reduction on the Mumbai route can be compensated with minor medium-haul network adjustments, without any need for further reductions in staff numbers. Services from London City Airport, Luxembourg and Riga, as well as the long-haul destination of Chicago, have already been cancelled this year.

Source://finchannel.com

Sri Lanka to Tailor Tourist Promotions to Indian States

Sri Lankas tourism promotion agency will market Sri Lanka to Indians on a state by state basis, with the Gujarat in Andhra Pradesh as its pilot project, officials said.

Head of Sri Lanka Renton de Alwis says India is a large market but it is difficult to market due its large size.

"So we want to be state-specific and segment-specific," says, De Alwis.

India has one of the largest and fastest growing middle classes in the world, with approximately 300 million people.

By September 2008, 63,915 Indians had visited Sri Lanka down from 77,900 in the same period, a year earlier.

Sri Lanka's tourist industry wants to reverse the trend. The new campaign will kick off in Gujarat to be followed by Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.

Air travel - especially over long distances - has been made prohibitively expensive over the past year. Though oil prices are falling, many Western economies are in turmoil. Worries about job losses are hardly conducive for a holiday mood.

Sri Lanka's internal conflict has also resulted in travel advisories being issued by Western governments.

Sri Lanka's tourist industry is hoping that Indian holidaymakers would prove more resilient.

"India is a growing economy and the downturn in the world economy would not affect India that much as the rest of world," hopes Ajith Gunawardane, deputy chairman of John Keells Holdings which runs hotels both in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

"Last year nine million Indians traveled out of India, we want to capture six to seven percent of that."

The countries that attract most Indian tourists are Singapore and Dubai, says Gunawardane. Both are shopping paradises.

Special Attractions

But officials are banking on Sri Lanka's proximity and wide variety of attractions to tempt the tastes of different Indian visitors.

"Sri Lanka is one of the closes travel destinations to the Indian Traveler," says Amal Goonetilleke, deputy chairman of the City Hotels Association.

"People from Chennai like to see temples and go to places like Nuwara Eliya which is quite similar to Ute in India.

"People from Delhi, like night life, discos, and casinos," says Goonetilleke.

Officials are also hoping to spice up the menus of local hotels to suit the Indian palate, by flying in Indian chefs to train Sri Lankans.

"We would conduct classes to cater the needs of regional travelers," says Bernard Goonatilleke head Sri Lanka's state-run hotel school.

"Chefs will come on short training courses".

Officials say Sri Lanka hotel room rates are also much lower than India now. A five star room in Colombo is about 70 US dollars.

"Indian hotels are very expensive. The equivalent to Taj Colombo would cost 300 500 dollars," say De Alwis.

SriLankan Airlines, the island's national carrier, says it will link with regional Indian airlines to provide cost effective connection from different states.

"We have 27 points in India and we want to expand, but then have to look at the competition," Amith Sumanapala, head of the travel arm of SriLankan

"Our strategy would be to tie up with other regional airlines as feeder routes. Already we are in talks with King Fisher, Jet Airways and Indian Airlines."

SriLankan has been cutting frequencies to some destinations after the country opened up to foreign competition and a large number of foreign carriers started to fly in. Its 100 weekly flights to India has been cut to 77.

Officials are hoping that the new promotion would lure more Indians to Sri Lanka where hotel room rates are also much lower than in India.

Source://asia.news.yahoo.com

New airline named RP carrier to Taiwan

THE Civil Aeronautics Board has designated local carrier Spirit of Manila Airlines as the only official carrier to operate international passenger services between Clark and Taiwan.

The airline will mount flights to Taiwan from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in the Clark Freeport Zone before the end of the year.

The designation will allow the carrier to operate passenger services at 450 seats per week between Clark and Taiwan, pursuant to an air traffic in 2006.

Long-Wen Lee, director-general of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, said the capacity under the Category II slot has been fully allocated to Spirit of Manila Airlines.

Spirit of Manila, led by Juan Paraiso III as president and chief executive, is the country’s newest airline and operates out of a 10-hectare property at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark. Paraiso has over 41 years experience in the aviation industry.

Two Boeing 737s will be coming in next month to service the airline’s regional routes like Taiwan. It is also negotiating for the dry-lease of two or three Boeing 767-300ERS and later Boeing 747-400s for long-haul international flights to the Middle East.

It plans to fly to Bahrain, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Johor Bahru, Kaohsiung, Macau, Osaka, Palau, Taipei, Mumbai, Karachi and the Gulf Region.

The airline also offers budget fares and other affordable fare schemes to cater to Filipinos working overseas.

Source://manilastandardtoday.com

Air India, Saudi Airlines to fly Haj pilgrims from Oct 30

More than 120,000 Haj pilgrims from India will travel to Jeddah on two airliners - India’s flagship carrier, Air India, and Saudi Airlines, a Gulf air carrier, - from 17 Indian cities from Oct 30, an airline official said Friday.

While Air India will fly 63,511 pilgrims, Saudi Airlines will carry 59,700 pilgrims.

Executive director and spokesperson of Air India Jitender Bhargava told IANS Friday that Air India would ferry the pilgrims on 400 flights.

The airlines will have an equal number of flights back from Jeddah to India after the Haj. The entire process is expected to end by Jan 12 next year.

The government has allowed 123,211 Haj pilgrimage this year. While Haj pilgrims were flown to Jeddah from 15 cities last year, two more destinations have been added this year. These include Aurangabad and Indore.

The Haj pilgrimage is the major annual event where millions of Muslim pilgrims from all over the world arrive in Jeddah on their way to Makkah. Haj is one of the five tenets of Islam and is every Muslim’s desire to perform Haj at least once in his lifetime.

Source:sindhtoday.net

Emirates Airline to go double daily to Moscow

Emirates Airline is going double daily to Moscow, further bonding the Russian route into the airline's network and broadening the scope for investment between Russia and the UAE.

Responding to passenger demand for increased frequencies, the Dubai-based carrier will launch the extra daily service on February 2nd next year. The new EK 131 flight will depart Dubai at 1740hrs and arrive in Moscow at 2205hrs. The return flight, EK 132, will depart Moscow at 2340hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0555hrs the following day.

Nabil Sultan, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe, said:

Mr Sultan, who attended a press conference yesterday in Moscow, added: 'Emirates will continue offering its passengers the best travel experience on the market and what is particularly pleasing is that they now they will have even more convenient access to numerous Emirates' destinations around the world.'

For example, passengers travelling between Moscow and the Seychelles or Johannesburg will benefit from reduced connection times in Dubai. Meanwhile, transit passengers will be able to avoid an overnight stop-over in Dubai when travelling between Russia and Cape Town, Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Customers can also look forward to easier connections to Middle Eastern destinations such as Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Sanaa.

Emirates' passenger and cargo services to Moscow began on a five times a week basis in 2003. As demand grew, that became six times a week, and in March 2005 Dubai to Moscow went daily.

Currently, Emirates' flights to Moscow are served by the airline's Boeing 777 series. The second daily flight will increase weekly capacity by 65% in Economy Class and the number of seats available in First and Business Class will double.

On the cargo side, the extra flight will increase Emirates SkyCargo's weekly capacity into Russia to more than 220 tonnes. Currently, the main products arriving in Moscow via Emirates SkyCargo are flowers from Africa, pharmaceuticals from the Indian subcontinent and meat from Australia and New Zealand.

The additional services will also enable Sky Cargo to even better serve Russian exporters by offering them more capacity and more frequent connections with their target markets.

Emirates offers passengers in Russia a range of ground services including online check-in, preferred seat selection at the time of booking when they purchase their tickets online and chauffeur-drive for First and Business Class travellers.

Emirates currently operates services to 101 destinations in 61 countries in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and the Asia-Pacific.

New passenger routes for 2008 include Cape Town (launched on the 30th of March), Kozhikode (Calicut) and Guangzhou - both launched 1st July. Services to Los Angeles start October 26th, while San Francisco kicks off December 15th.

Emirates is the world's largest customer for the A380. The Emirates' version of the super-jumbo has Onboard Shower Spas and an Onboard Lounge where Premium class passengers can socialise over a drink - effectively creating a premium hotel in the sky.

The carrier is expecting to receive its second A380 on October 24th, which will be added to the aircraft serving the New York JFK route. From December 1st, the double-decker is set to fly the London Heathrow route and then Sydney and Auckland in February 2009.

Flights from Dubai:

- EK 133 departs Dubai 1015hrs, arrives Moscow 1440hrs.
- EK 131 departs Dubai 1740hrs, arrives Moscow 2205hrs (effective February 2nd, 2009).

Flights to Dubai:

- EK 134 departs Moscow 1650hrs, arrives Dubai 2255hrs.
- EK 132 departs Moscow 2340hrs, arrives Dubai 0555hrs the following day (effective February 2nd, 2009).

Source://ameinfo

Airlines to pay Rs 30,000 for abrupt flight cancellation

The State Consumer Commission has pulled up the Deccan Aviation Limited for putting a passenger to inconvenience by abruptly cancelling its Kullu-Delhi flight for four days at a stretch and directed the airlines to pay Rs 30,000 compensation to him.

"The airlines-service provider is supposed to keep the flights in perfect order and not to put the passengers in unnecessary inconvenience and mental stress by keeping them waiting or sending them back who might be having some urgent business engagements or assignments," the Commission said.

"All such acts amount to deficiency in service and render the service provider (aviation company) liable to compensate the consumer adequately and reasonably in terms of the observations of the Supreme Court," Commission President Justice J D Kapoor said, rejecting the airlines' plea that the cancellation of flight was due to bad weather.

Anjani Malik, a resident of Haryana, suffered at the hands of the airline when he was not able to catch a flight from Kullu to Delhi in March last year and was told to wait for the next day, the exercise which lasted for four days at at a stretch.

After the harassment, he decided to return to the Capital at his own costs. Malik then approached the District Consumer Forum, Sheikh Sarai, claiming Rs 50,000 compensation following which the airlines was asked to pay Rs 30,000.

"In the instant case, Malik purchased tickets in February 28, 2007 and they had to remain in Kullu upto March 4 and therefore faced inconvenience and had to incur expenditure on boarding and lodging," Justice Kapoor said.

source://business-standard

Lack of direction hurts sector

The government may have a policy to restore the country's tourism image after months of political turmoil, but its top players appear to be working against each other, complains a local hotelier.

While the Tourism Authority of Thailand is working to improve the country's image, Thai Airways International is cutting flights and Airports of Thailand is talking about increasing landing fees, says Chanin Donavanik, managing director and CEO of Dusit Thani Plc.

He said that THAI and AOT should ask themselves what their priorities were: the country's interests or their own.

"I have been president of the Thai Hotels Association for 10 years. Over the past three years, I have seen weak governments, and business operators, including me, have come to realise that we can't rely on the state to help us in the long term," he said.

Mr Chanin has predicted the number of western tourist arrivals would decrease by between 20% and 30% next year before improving in the following year. Asian tourist arrivals would grow by 5% to 10% next year if the domestic political problems end soon.

He forecast that the country would lose 10 billion baht in tourism revenue this year due to the political strife and global financial crisis.

Reservations in the coming high season may appear good, he said, but only between Dec 15 and Jan 15, compared to the normal situation when bookings are solid from November to February.

To stimulate travel, Mr Chanin suggested that the government create new and sustainable marketing campaigns to compete with neighbouring countries.

He believes the global economic situation will get worse over the next six months. But since travel is a part of life, the government needs big marketing campaigns to help tourism businesses, especially in Asian and Middle East markets with high potential.

To promote Thailand in Asia, he said, the TAT should stress shopping, spa, medical treatment, and food packages instead of the cultural and natural attractions that have long been at the core of its marketing.

"We have sold Thai culture and natural tourist destinations for more than 10 years. It's time we changed, especially for Asian tourists," said Mr Chanin.

He expressed concern that that Thai tourism industry was now trailing those of Singapore and South Korea, which have done a better job promoting themselves in recent years.

"Singapore Airlines does not decrease its flights even in the face of loses. THAI, on the other hand, has done exactly the opposite. As well, THAI would rush to buy new aircraft after making some profits. That's why Singapore's tourism industry has sustainable growth."

He also said that some small hotels had gone out of business because they couldn't compete with rivals, saying the government should pay more attention to them. Unfortunately, he said, authorities have focused only on the macro picture because it is very easy to just spend money on advertisements.

"Some small hotels are looking for foreign investors to take over their businesses. This is sad for Thai hoteliers."

Source://bangkokpost