US asks Tickets portals to Disclose Airlines Information

The US authorities have issued a circular asking all the airlines Booking portals to specify in advance the airlines that will be boarded by the passengers for the Booked Tickets. The U.S. airlines and online travel portals have been given 60 days to comply with the new rules. The passengers would now be able to know which carriers will be flying them and hence be able to make informed online purchase and Tickets Booking.


The outcry over arbitrary airlines allocation came after the crash of a regional jet in 2009 near Buffalo in United states that killed all 49 people aboard the aircraft as well as one person on the ground.

The twin-engine plane was operated by Colgan Air, a unit of Pinnacle Airlines Corp, as a Continental Connection flight, resulting from code share agreement between both the airlines. The agreements called Third party Code shares are frequent with many regional affiliates in the market. But there exists huge disparity in Skills of the pilots, services and working conditions among major and regional players. The present law is to plug these safety issues. The step would have impact on all airlines Booking including Flights to India.

Thai Airways to Launch Northeast India Flights

In a major Boost towards the connectivity for the eastern India, Thailand government has confirmed that the Thai Airways, the national carrier of Thailand would be starting direct flights to Assam capital Guwahati. It has been observed that there has been growing number of Indians visiting Thailand for tourism and The flights to the Eastern region will be also a step towards initiating more Business visitors to the country.


But the flights are expected to initiated not before the end of January 2011. Currently Thai Airways have direct flights to Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore.The move would also boost the opportunity to Thai construction companies to invest in India. The move also come at a time when the aviation sector in India is seeing major growth potential with most of the airline flying at 80-90% occupancy and opening an untapped market may be profitable for Thai Airways.Presently most of the airline do not have direct flight to the Northeast region of India.

Air India Express To Start Cheap Flight Operation for Tier II cities

Air India Express the low cost arm of the India's national carrier Air India has taken credible steps towards launching budget domestic flights from March 2011, linking all metros in India such as Delhi,Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata with tier II suburban and million plus cities in the initial phase.But particularly for Delhi, the cheap Flights will start only from October or December 2011. Late Delhi operation is due to the operational requirement to get the pilots trained for flying in Fog like circumstances.

Once a big hit the Low costs carrier is also to get renamed as Express India as well as shifting headquarters to Cochin from Mumbai due to heavy Southern presence for the carrier. The cheap Air India express flights are termed super economy and the proposed fares for these carriers will be be double that of the economy charges and the seats may also have in flight entertainment.

United States to enforce US secure flight rules form next Month

Air travelers visiting United states will have to furnish additional details regarding personal information on all flight bookings starting from November all international and domestic flights. At the time of booking all the travelers would be required to fill in their date of birth, gender at least 72 hours before the scheduled departure of the flights.

The rules to be enforced and overseen by the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants passengers to provide complete secure flight passenger data when booking reservations so that it can conduct watch list matching and approve airlines to issue a boarding pass to the travelers. The new rules apply to all international and domestic flights.Recent times has seen United states go heavy on accumulating traveler data and its matching with the available records for security purposes.

World Travel and Tourism Awards Goes to India for 2010

India was judged the best in the World Travel Awards Asia & Australasia Ceremony held in Delhi on 14 October 2010.India bagged the Asia’s Leading Destination” at the World Travel Awards Ceremony attended by the leading Travel company's CEOs.Besides the tourism destination category India also figured prominently in terms of Hotels and Resorts category.Indian awards also included “Asia’s Leading Hotel” and “Asia’s Leading Luxury Hotel” for the Trident Gurgaon; “Asia’s Leading Resort” for The Leela Kempinski Kovalam Beach Kerala, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts won the award for “Asia’s Leading Hotel Brand”; whilst India Tourism picked up “Asia’s Leading Tourist Board”.

Some Asian Brands also emerged for their exemplary service and customer orientation. This included Malaysia Airlines, which bagged the “Asia’s Leading Airline” and “Asia’s Leading Airline Business Class” awards. Shanghai won the award for “Asia’s Leading Meetings & Conference Destination”, Avis received the trophy for “Asia’s Leading Car Hire”, Cox & Kings were awarded “India’s Leading Destination Management Company”. The Pan Pacific Singapore won the trophy for “Asia’s Leading Business Hotel”, while Swissôtel was crowned “Asia’s Leading Business Hotel Brand”.

In totality India bagged picking up 11 out of a possible 47 awards. This also indicates the rise of India as a top Holiday destination.

American Airlines to codeshare with Jetstar

In yet another indication of the growing cooperation between airlines to beat the market competition, Jetstar and American Airlines have decided to share domestic New Zealand services to boost air traffic numbers into particularly in Queenstown and the lower South Island in New Zealand.

The new alliance could dramatically increase the number of American tourists visiting New Zealand.
American Airlines is the world's second largest airline and US visitors to New Zea land account for a third of the over-all inbound market, worth about $500 million to the economy each year.


Recently Jetstar expanded its services between Singapore and Auckland and this segment can also be a major beneficiary of the new code share agreement. The proposed code share agreement applies to domestic services between Queens town, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland and accounts for 116 weekly flights. It is noteworthy that American Airlines already has an existing agreement with Qantas, the owner of Jetstar with respect to flights between Los Angeles and Auckland in Newzealand.

From now on the passengers on international flights to Newzealand could catch a domestic Jetstar flight from Auckland as part of one itinerary. Code share agreements have been one way in which airlines cooperate to beat the recessions.

American Airlines,British Airways and Iberia Air Launches their Joint Venture

In a major development American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia air have launched their Joint Venture which will have a major impact on the European and American Travel and flight industry. Most important of all with the collaboration between the three airlines airfares are going to be reduced considerably. In recent time there have been a flurry of airlines cooperation deals such as that by Continental Airlines, SkyTeam alliance of Air France-KLM, Delta and Alitalia air.

The combined airlines will launch operations in four new routes - New York JFK-Budapest, Chicago-Helsinki, London Heathrow-San Diego and Madrid-Los Angeles from April. Mean time the airlines expect that increased code-sharing will drive prices down as customers will have a greater number of flights from which to choose if the price offered by the airlines happens to be different.

The airlines will:

• An aligned schedules will be launched spacing out departure times to give customers more flexibility.
• Allowing Travelers e to book on any of the three airlines' websites and check in at the desk of the airline they booked with or are flying.
• Also the frequent flyer programs of all the three airlines have been aligned allowing greater customer flexibility.

Continental Airlines and united Airlines Merger Deal

Continental Airlines and United UAL have entered into a deal that is set to emerge as the largest Carrier group in the world. The United Continental Holdings, the name for the new entity is formed fro the $3.1 billion merger and the Symbol would be UAL.Both the companies have already strong Global Network and with the merger have unparalleled global network, the best new aircraft order book among U.S. network carriers and can afford to offer superior products and services.

The United Holding will have approximately $9 billion in unrestricted cash at closing and the merger is expected to deliver $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion in net annual synergies by 2013, including between $800 million and $900 million of incremental annual revenue, from expanded customer options resulting from the greater scope and scale of the network, fleet optimization and expanded service enabled by the broader network of the combined carrier.

On a pro-forma basis, the combined company would have annual revenues of $31.4 billion, based on results for the 12 months ending June 30,2010.The impact of The merger will on other airlines such as Delta airlines is yet to be seen particularly when share of Delta airlines in domestic flights is reduce in this preceding quarter.
Tags:United Airlines, Continental Airlines

Jet airways get Nod For Flights to Milan

Jet Airways Proposed Flight to Milan (Italy) has been approved by the Indian aviation ministry. Besides Flight to Milan the Indian airlines also got permission to increase the no of light operations to many other international destinations such as Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo from various Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

This is seen as very favorable opportunity for Jet Airways to delve into the untapped European markets which presently are served through indirect flights from India. Besides Milan, Jet Airways also proposes to have direct flights to other European destinations as till now there was a freeze India’s largest airline by passengers carried had imposed on long-haul route expansion following the financial crisis of 2008.

Jet Airways launched international flights in 2004 and expanded aggressively on long-haul routes, but imposed a moratorium of new long-haul international flights in November 2008 after a credit crunch and economic slowdown in the wake of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008. As a part of resuming its long-distance route expansion, Jet Airways had applied for permission to fly to other international routes including Mexico and Paris.
The step of Jet Airways is definite to be followed by many other Indian airlines such as Kingfisher who are now vying for international destinations to enhance their profitability.

Singapore airlines Grand India and Global Plans

Singapore Airlines has finally set its eyes on teh Indian airlines market for its next phse of expansion.Singapore Airlines plans to expand its footprints in India seems to be fructifying in terms of landing rights for new destinations and enhancing capacity on the routes that it services.

Singapore airlines hopes to utilize the Indian growth prospects emerging markets to expand its operations globally.

Airline traffic has been in the upswing since last year and at he same time traffic between Singapore and India is expected to rise with the scaling up of the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) between the two countries to facilitate flow of trade, services and investment. India has emerged as a priority market and an important component of Singapore Airlines global operations.


The CECA between the two countries is expected to pave the way for Indian doctors, dentists and architects to tap the opportunities available in Singapore. In the education sector , Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, already has a presence in Singapore along with universities such as Stanford and Cornell . The strengthening of the economic ties is expected to result not only in more business, but also tourists traveling between the two countries. After the global slowdown, Singapore has bounced back strongly with estimates indicating economic growth at 15%, providing more scope to both sides to expand trade and investment flows.

Singapore Airlines has reinstated double dailies on the Mumbai and Delhi routes and together with its sister carrier Silk Air, the two carriers operate 80 flights to India. With its fleet of newly acquired Air bus 380 The airlines seems to be much prepared to tap the market. But Only Emirates airlines and Air India expansion plan have to be watched.

British Airways and American Airlines Joint Venture to Start

The proposed agreement between British Airways Plc’s American Airlines for a joint venture on flights across the United states and Europe is set to kick start in the first week of November.

The two airlines have indicated that both of them will also align their frequent-flier programs allowing travelers to earn and use their miles on both airlines as soon as the venture starts operating. The companies then plan to coordinate their schedule next year before adding new destinations in the U.S. and Europe.


British Airways is Europe’s third-largest carrier, and American airlines based in Texas, won approval for the tie- up from antitrust regulators in July on their third try, after rejections in 1997 and 2001. The alliance will control almost 50 percent of U.S. flights at London’s Heathrow Airport.

In another development, Iberia Lineas Aereas, the Spanish airline is scheduled to complete its merger with London-based British Airways by the end of 2010,is also part of the joint venture and will contribute about 10 percent of the venture’s estimated $7 billion in annual revenue.

British Airways to Codeshare with an Indian Airlines

In a major development the British Airways and an Indian Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines have decided to implement code sharing on each other’s flights across India, UK and all over Europe starting from coming 15 September 2010.

This development is very important as it is for the first time that the British Airways has initiated this for an India based airlines. As such the British airways code will be shared on 11 domestic Indian routes and one route to Sri Lanka operated by Kingfisher Airlines and in turn Kingfisher Airlines’ code will be placed on nine British Airways’ routes from Heathrow to the UK regions and continental Europe.

As a consequence of this,the airlines’ customers will be able to book their whole journey on each other’s websites, earn frequent flyer points on the code share routes and gain access to each other’s airport lounges.

Kingfisher Also announced earlier that it is lining up to join oneworld. The codeshare with British Airways will mean that our guests from India will now be able to fly seamlessly to nine new European cities. Besides making onward connections much simpler, this will mean enhanced connectivity and reach for guests traveling with us to Europe. Similarly, all British Airways’ fliers will now be able to travel with India’s first and only five star airline.

British Airways have flights from from Heathrow to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Hence its code will be placed on Kingfisher Airlines flights from Bangalore to Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi; Chennai to Coimbatore and Colombo (Sri Lanka). Delhi to Bangalore and Kolkata; Mumbai to Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Kingfisher Airlines flies from Delhi and Mumbai to Heathrow. Its code will be placed on British Airways flights from Heathrow to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Lisbon and Paris.

Indian Airlines announces International Flights to Srilanka

Two Indian airlines have decided to start operations to Sri Lanka following such moves by other international airlines such as Air Asia and Emirates.

Both SpiceJet and Jet Airways have announced their plans to start direct flights to Colombo from many Indian cities. Known for their low-cost fare structuring it is assumed that travel to the island may get cheaper with arrival of new players.
Also Jet Airways, one of the fastest growing airlines too announced earlier of its plans to launch charter flights to Sri Lanka from Brussels.

Other international airlines have already started operations to Sri Lanka since the end of war. They are Air Asia, Fly Dubai, Oman Air and Indian Express.

Flights To India crippled

Flights to India such as Air India, Indian airline and many international airlines such as Lufthansa and British airways was affected by the trade union strike going on in India. The major problems faced by the commuters were primarily regarding flights cancellation and Flight delays.

Left stranded the commuters had to face harrowing time in waiting impatiently for the airlines for they were not told in advanced about the delays or impending trade union strike.

Most importantly, there were no words from the government to alleviate the situation and neither there were reports of any Trade Union and government meeting to cut a deal.

Indian National airline, Air India airlines has been voted and ranked as the 'Most Trusted Brand' in the aviation sector in India according to the study conducted by the Economic Times Brand Equity Survey 2010.

Air India has made to the top profile for the fifth consecutive year. Air India express has also been ranked 28th among the top 50 service brands in India, which incidentally is placed ahead of many Indian leading banks, renowned insurance companies, retail food-chains and of course other airlines .

Not many months ago Air India was ranked also chosen for the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Gold Award also for the fifth consecutive year. One of the foremost criteria adopted by the survey of the Economic Times in collaboration with The Nielsen Company is related to a particular brand's with consumers. in terms of familiarity, consumer perception about quality and reassurance of a good service.

Air India has been positioning itself for continued market dominance by remodeling it as a major low cost airline service provider as rising income of suburban cities means that there will be greater demand for airlines and air services in those cities.

Hence, Air India Express has decided to introduce many new destinations, international and domestic starting with 20 cities and 150 flights per week and waiting for the pan-India services launch. The viability of an all economy aircraft is yet to be proved in the Indian market and hence the steps of Air Indian express is keenly watched and so are the Air Indian Express airfares and online booking offerings. Recently Jet airways also launched the low cost carrier model and other airlines may follow suit.