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