Ganguly joined the BJP in New Delhi at the party headquarters in the presence of several other party leaders, including its national media department in-charge Anil Baluni.
'This festival season, advance airfares for major metros are up 20 to 25 per cent from last year.'
'The past few quarters have seen prohibitive fares for advance bookings, only to dip closer to departure.'
Starting November 12, Vistara aircraft will be operated under the Air India banner, to be identified by a special four-digit flight code beginning with "2".
Indigo has zero competition on 61.2 per cent of its 838 domestic routes.
Airfares on major domestic routes such as Kolkata-Bagdogra, Delhi-Bengaluru, and Delhi-Mumbai have witnessed an increase of up to 12.7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in May this year, according to data by Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel. The recent increase in aviation turbine fuel prices, rupee depreciation, reduction of flights by key players, and grounding of planes due to engine supply issues have contributed to the rise in airfares, said aviation industry experts. However, the data also shows that summer airfares on key routes such as Delhi-Leh and Delhi-Kolkata have significantly decreased due to the introduction of new flights.
Airfares in the country are set to rise, with IndiGo on Thursday introducing a fuel charge of up to Rs 1,000 based on a flight's distance, in response to the significant rise in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices in the last three months. The Indian aviation sector experiences its peak travel season between October and December. The inclusion of a fuel charge component in airfares is anticipated to have a sizable impact on IndiGo's passengers, according to experts.
The phenomenon of fog is largely Delhi-centric. 'Airlines may think that we only have conditions of extreme fog on a few days every year, and spending a pilot's time and the airline's money on training can add up to its expenses.' 'So, they may prefer holding it for a few days.'
The Tata Group-owned Air India has readied a five-year transformation plan, which is expected to take its domestic market share to 30 per cent, up from 8.4 per cent logged in June. IndiGo leads with a market share of 58.8 per cent. The transformation plan--Vihaan.AI-unveiled on Thursday revolves around tripling the domestic market share with investments in new aircraft, technology and improvements in customer service.
Reader Ameya Joshi has sent us a photograph.
Tata Group-owned Air India, under its new chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilson, is optimising its domestic strategy under which the carrier is "densifying" its presence on metro-to-metro routes and exiting from unviable ones, Business Standard has learnt. Wilson took charge on July 25. Air India has increased its flights on metro-to-metro routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Hyderabad-Mumbai between June and November this year.
Air India is set to increase capacity on domestic and international routes over the next few months as it overhauls its grounded aircraft. Air India has the approval to operate 2,456 flights per week in the summer schedule. This is more than a 16 per cent increase over 2020. But its international schedule has declined 41 per cent (compared to winter 2019) to 361 weekly departures.
When the Tatas re-boarded Air India on January 27 last year, the price of aviation turbine fuel was at over Rs 80,000 per kilolitre. Rupee was trading at around Rs 74 to a US dollar. The Omicron variant of Covid-19 was in prevalence - barely a week earlier, India had reported over 340,000 cases on a single day. Seven-day home quarantine of international travellers was the norm.
The acquisition will give the Tatas a firm footing on international routes and generate economies of scale.
IndiGo, India's largest airline, is in talks to raise fresh funds as a second wave of pandemic has led to collapse in travel demand. The airline may look to raise Rs 3,500-4,000 crore. On Monday, only 97,761 passengers flew. With flyers cancelling bookings, airlines had to put aside flights and operated only 1,306 of them.
With better utilisation of slots, foreign flying rights, and greater international connections, the operator of India's largest airport feels a privatised Air India will bring commercial benefit to Delhi airport and help it revive quicker from the pandemic shock. Delhi is the largest hub for Air India, with most of its long-haul flights to the US and Europe being operated from here. The airport plans to give its most modern terminal 3 (T3) exclusively to the Tata Group.
Over 70 per cent of Jet's fleet has been grounded, leading to massive cancellations.
At least 20 to 30 departures are being cancelled daily from metros and key airports including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Vistara started allowing passengers to book an extra seat from Tuesday. IndiGo and SpiceJet, too, are in the final stages of designing such a product to be sold as an add-on.
The plan is to charge 30 per cent less. Travel sector executives say if IndiGo is able to do so, it could create a new class of flyers.
Analysts expect holiday fares to inch up further closer to the travel dates, but airlines may still not be able to fully recover higher costs as fuel costs remain elevated
Curtailment of flights between India and China will help Air India and other airlines to boost their seat occupancy and market share.
However, while the capacity void in the domestic market has been filled, a vacuum still remains in international connectivity, especially on the India-Europe and onwards route, which was well connected by Jet Airways via the Boeing 777, Airbus A330 aircraft and its hubs in Paris and Amsterdam.
The electric vehicle evolution in India's passenger vehicle market has remained frozen in time and may see limited adoption over the next decade, experts say.
IndiGo said operations of the ATR fleet would be handled by an independent team that would be responsible for in-flight services, dispatch and control, and revenue.
Bengaluru and Delhi airports had the fastest growth in passenger traffic in 2016 among global peers.
Vistara Chief Executive Officer Phee Teik Yeoh is expected to meet the senior management of BA over the next few days to discuss the partnership.
In contrast to its global peers, a lion's share of Delhi airport's growth came from domestic flyers, which, at 46.6 million, makes up for 73 per cent of the total number of passengers.
One reason is that airlines have ramped up capacity and expanded their presence in tier-II markets. The first of a three-part series analyses how the aviation industry is an outlier in the midst of an overall economic slowdown.
Vistara announced the new fare model giving its economy class customers the choice to forego complimentary meal for a ticket price which is Rs 500-1000 cheaper than the standard fare.
"The return fare on economy class to most European capitals from Mumbai are close to 50,000 plus. If an LCC can offer direct connectivity for a basic fare of 25,000 with additional top ups for meals, baggage and blankets, which further takes the fare to, say, 35,000, it is still a value deal."