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India’s finest full-service carrier, Vistara, has started flying international flights between Germany and India. The great thing about this flight is that it is non-stop, meaning passengers won’t have to worry about overlays at international airports during the time of COVID-19. According to a PTI report, the international flights between India and Germany will take place under an air-bubble agreement. This is because the Indian government still hasn’t given the green signal for operating regular international flights to the airlines — more details on the story ahead. [wpdiscuz-feedback id="hi3t42zk3p" question="Do you have any plans to fly to Germany anytime soon ?" opened="0"]Vistara India to Germany Flight, Details[/wpdiscuz-feedback] As mentioned above, the non-stop flight between India and Germany will be operated under the air-bubble agreement formed between the governments of both nations. Vistara is using its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The first flight to Germany departed from Delhi at 3:30 AM (IST) on Thursday and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, at 7:55 AM (CET), Vistara said. It is only a ‘non-stop’ flight, not a ‘regular’ flight, so remember the difference. Vistara will be operating flights between both countries twice a week. The first flight will be on ‘Thursdays’ and the second on ‘Saturdays’. The airline wants to improve its international presence, starting with Europe. Vistara’s Chief Executive Officer, Leslie Thng, said that the launch of services to Frankfurt is the airline’s step in improving its global network and strengthening Vistara’s presence in Europe. Thng said that Frankfurt promises great opportunities for the airline since it is recognised as one of the busiest airport hubs in the world. Vistara will accept all the customers who meet the policy requirements of the airline, the government and hold an eligible visa for the purpose of travelling in both countries. It is important that passengers travelling from abroad are updated with the latest rules of travelling to India. The government of India has said that any passenger travelling from the United Kingdom, Middle East, or Europe has to mandatorily self-pay for the molecular tests at the airport from February 23, 2021.
The government had earlier decided on the price bands for different routes and all the airlines had to mandatorily follow it. Much recently, the government extended the domestic capacity for the airlines to operate their flights by up to 80%, but along with this, the government also increased the price bands set for several routes by up to 30%. This means that domestic flights are set to become more expensive for travellers within India — more details on the story ahead. Price Bands Decided by the Government For Various Routes According to a report from the Times of India, the government has decided to increase the minimum fare by up to 10% and the maximum fare by up to 30%. Let’s take a look at the price bands set for various routes by the government. The Delhi-Mumbai route had a price band of Rs 3,500-10,000, but it has been changed to Rs 3,900-13,000 now. Do mind that these bands are economy fares which do not include passenger security fee (Rs 150 for domestic) and user development fee for airports along with the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The aviation ministry had last year decided to categorise domestic flights into seven categories. Those categories have been updated with new price bands mentioned below. For flights with a duration of up to 40 minutes, the new airfare range has been decided Rs 2,200-7,800. Then fare band for flights with a duration of between 40 to 60 minutes has been decided Rs 2,800-9,800. The fare band for flights with a duration between 60 to 90 minutes has been set at Rs 3,300-11,700. Then for flights with a duration between 90 to 120 minutes, the new price band has been set at Rs 3,900-13,000. Going further, the price band for flights between 120 to 150 minutes, 150 to 180 minutes, and 180 to 210 minutes has been set at Rs 4,500-13,000, Rs 6,100-20,400, and Rs 7,200-24200 respectively. Now the domestic airlines are also allowed to operate up to 80% of their pre-COVID flights. The international flights still remain suspended at the moment and this fare-band for domestic flights will be in effect until March-end.
All the three airlines of the SIA group - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, and Scoot have done something which no other airline group in the world has done so far. The concerned airlines have operated flights with a full set of vaccinated cabin crew and pilots. There were three flights, one from each airline that took off with cabin crew and pilots who were all vaccinated against the COVID-19 or coronavirus. This will be a major boost for the confidence of every passenger travelling with the airline during the time of global pandemic — more details on the story ahead. SIA Group Airlines Now Have Vaccinated Pilots and Crew The first flight (SQ956) from Singapore Airlines with vaccinated pilots and cabin crew took off from Singapore at 9:30 AM local time (GMT +8) for Jakarta, Indonesia. Following that, Scoot’s flight (TR606) departed for Bangkok, Thailand from Singapore at 9:30 AM local time (GMT +8). Lastly, SilkAir operated its flight (MI608) which took off from Phnom Penh, Cambodia at 4:30 pm local time. In a release from the SIA, it has been noted that the Singapore government has prioritised the aviation sector when it came to vaccinations. This is evidence of how important the government thinks the sector is. The aviation sector is crucial when it comes to the recovery of an economy. The release also said that 90% of the SIA group's operating crew has already signed up for the vaccines. Mr Goh Choon Phong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Singapore Airlines, said that vaccinations would be essential for opening up the country's borders and boosting the confidence of people to start travelling again. He also said that the airline group is pleased with its employees who have taken up the ‘getting vaccinated’ thing very enthusiastically. This is a good thing for Singapore and its travel and tourism industry. With vaccines being available in a more wide-scale manner in future, more and more airlines and travellers will get it, and it will start bringing back the normalcy of international travel once again.
Born during the pandemic, India’s newest airline, Flybig has decided to opt ARMS software suite from LAMINAAR to conduct its digital operations. ARMS software will help the airline in kickstarting its operations in an efficient and smooth manner. The ATR operator has chosen the ARMS V2.5 unified platform for managing flight operations, crew management, network planning, flight dispatch, maintenance & engineering (M&E), along with safety management. So the software is actually going to help the airline get down and execute most of its services in an accountable manner — more details on the story ahead. ARMS V2.5 to Offer Seamless Interoperability and Flexibility Between Subsystems There are a lot of systems at work to keep things accountable and efficient whenever it comes to large-scale companies or airlines. Despite being a new airline, Flybig will have to take care of several things to operate flights just like the biggest airlines in India and all around the world do. Thus, ARMS V2.5 is going to help the airline in this aspect by offering seamless interoperability and flexibility between its subsystems to ensure that everything keeps going smooth. The tech stack of the software is very easy to understand, deploy, add components, and maintain to offer non-disruptive incremental changes which benefit a lot to large airlines. LAMINAAR has multiple offices in India (Bangalore and Mumbai), as well as globally (Singapore and USA). The tech company has more than 75 global clients which include big Indian airlines such as Vistara, GoAir, Air India, SpiceJet, and other start-up airlines such as Star Air. International airlines such as AirAsia, Silk Air, Iberia, and more are also clients of LAMINAAR and keep taking its services in the domain of software and technology. Flybig operated its first flight in December 2020 when it flew from New Delhi to Shillong. January 3, 2021, onwards the airline started serving its destinations from the Indore hub. At present, the airline has a fleet of two ATR 72-500s and has plans of adding more of it along with Dornier 228s.
While addressing a press conference at the Kushabhau Thakre Parisar, BJP’s state office in Chattisgarh, Hardeep Singh Puri confirmed that Bilaspur airport would get to see domestic flights from March 1, 2021. These flights will be conducted under the regional connectivity scheme, ‘UDAN’ of the government. It is worth noting that Bilaspur airport got upgraded from the ‘2C’ category to the ‘3C’ category just a few days back. The ‘3C’ category airports can allow the landing of a 72-seater aircraft instead of 40 seater aircraft under the ‘2C’ category — more details on the story ahead. [caption id="attachment_20632" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image Credits - BAAC[/caption] Alliance Air to be the First Airline to Operate from Bilaspur According to a PTI report, the first airline that will operate from Bilaspur is the subsidiary of Air India, ‘Alliance Air’, which will operate in the Bilaspur-Prayagraj-Delhi route. The flight schedules or any other details of the flights that will be operated from Bilaspur are unknown. The website of Alliance Air or Air India also doesn’t reveal any information about the same. Puri said that his ministry is working to connect 1,000 new air routes under the UDAN scheme. It will operationalise around 100 airports which are unserved or underserved at the moment. Since the UDAN scheme was announced in 2017, around 700 routes have already been awarded out of which air services have started in 311 routes with a budget of Rs 4,500 crores. The Civil Aviation Minister also took a jibe at Congress for worsening the economic condition of the state-run airline, Air India. He said that the government has to discuss the airline's privatisation because Congress didn’t appropriately treat the national asset. Air India is in a debt of around Rs 60,000 crore. The airline is going to be privatised, and bidding for the same will initiate soon. Puri has promised that everything that goes on with the airline will take place in a transparent manner. Puri also said that privatisation of the aviation sector needs to take place. This is because the government doesn’t specialise in operating airports.

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Srikapardhi November 9th, 2020 9:32 AM 0 COMMENTS

Etihad Changes Organisational Structure to Address the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Etihad announced a new organisational structure that will position the business to deliver on its mandate in the wake of COVID-19 and meet the challenges of the global downturn in aviation head-on. The restructuring sees the airline continuing its transformation into a mid-sized, full-service carrier concentrating on its fleet of widebody aircraft, with a leaner, flatter and scaleable organisational structure that supports organic growth as the world returns to flying. By... Read More

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