Based on factors like shopping, dining, staff courtesy, baggage delivery and waiting times at security, airport customers chose Hong Kong over 190 others in an annual survey conducted by Skytrax, a privately-owned research company in London, which released the results on Tuesday. The ranking was finalised based on 8.2 million company questionnaires completed by passengers over 10 months from 2007 to 2008.
The flight had departed after a delay of almost 3.5 hours as its scheduled departure was at 8.50 am, as per flight tracking website flightradar24.com.
Increasingly restive protests for over two months have plunged Hong Kong into its most serious political crisis in decades.
Reader Deepak Jain has sent us a photograph.
Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways launched its first flight for Hong Kong from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai on Monday. Jet Airways is the first private carrier to have started a service to Hong Kong from India.
SKYTRAX's annual airport rankings for 2026, based on a global passenger poll, placed four Indian gateways within the top 100. Delhi moved up to 28th and led the India-South Asia region, while Hyderabad climbed to 43rd and earned praise for staff service. Goa and Mumbai improved to 64th and 66th respectively.
This is the second day in a row that air travel in Hong Kong has been affected. A mass sit-in by the protesters was witnessed on Monday, while all flights in and out of the region were cancelled after 4 pm.
'The rate of transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong was 0.7 -- anything below 1 suggests the epidemic is receding.' 'The city-State achieved this without the de facto police-State curfew that India has resorted to,' says Rahul Jacob.
Air India passenger flights were barred from landing in Hong Kong between August 18 and August 31 after 14 passengers on its Delhi-Hong Kong flight of August 14 tested positive for COVID-19 post arrival.
Previous bans were on the airline's Delhi-Hong Kong flights during September 20-October 3 and August 18-August 31 and October 17-October 30. Passengers from India can arrive in Hong Kong only if they have a COVID-19 negative certificate from a test done within 72 hours prior to the journey, according to rules issued by the Hong Kong government in July.
Captured in powerful images and unforgettable moments, 2025 emerged as a turning point in global affairs. These images tell the defining stories that shaped the world across continents.
Three Indians held at gunpoint for three days by kidnappers in Hong Kong have been freed following a rare international operation. The three men - travelling on a business trip to Hong Kong -- were abducted within hours of their arrival on Saturday.
Airports across the world are known for their outstanding features and facilites.
According to authorities, the group is suspected to be operating together as part of an international in-flight theft racket.
In the past few days, more than 40 flights operated by the Indian carriers have received bomb threats which later turned out to be hoaxes.
Four airports from United States figure in the list of world's busiest airports.
'For the first time in a hundred years, the army has been taken out of the political equation. And for the first time ever, there is only one man who calls the shots. Not even Mao had this kind of power.'
Two international flights were called back while one which was preparing for departure from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi was taken to an isolation bay due to a bomb scare early Saturday, sources said.
Addressing close to 700 employees and the leadership team across the Air India headquarters and Air India Training Academy in Gurugram, Chandrasekaran urged them to stay on course, terming the accident the most "heartbreaking" crisis of his career.
At the Delhi airport, as many as 455 passengers have been subjected to random coronavirus testing, starting from 10 am on Saturday till 7 pm on Sunday. Out of them, less than half per cent are positive cases, an official at Genestrings Diagnostic Centre said.
Thousands of travelers began to fly in and out of mainland China as Beijing removed almost all of its border restrictions.
The sources said that of the 124 positive samples, genome sequencing results of 40 were received of which XBB, including XBB.1, was found in 14 samples and BF 7.4.1 in one sample.
Operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi were affected on Wednesday after dense fog partially disrupted the schedule of over 30 flights, including diversion of an international flight to Mumbai.
The Centre had on Thursday asked all states and union territories to conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana, where the B.1.1.529 variant has been detected.
The Mumbai Customs Air Intelligence Unit has detained four persons at the Mumbai airport for violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act norms as they carried digital phone memory cards worth Rs 52 lakhs.
The new ATC tower, being built at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi by the Airports Authority of India, will be about 90-95 mt in height, taller than even the famous Qutub Minar.
A passenger called Himadri Barman tested positive on Tuesday, and Nagendra Singh tested positive on Wednesday, said the director of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.
Infrastructure developer GMR Infrastructure said on Wednesday it has tied up with Plaza Premium Lounge of Hong Kong for maintaining and managing lounges at the New Hyderabad International Airport.
Any passenger from these countries found symptomatic or testing positive for coronavirus would be quarantined, Mandaviya said.
Passengers on-board a Kingfisher Airlines Mumbai-bound flight had tense moments on Monday after the pilot pressed a hijack alarm by mistake.
A negative Covid report is a must for passengers transiting through China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand, irrespective of their originating countries, before landing at any Indian airport, the Union health ministry said on Monday.
Officials said 387 passengers were aboard two flights from Toronto and Singapore on the day the country ended its strict COVID-19 restrictions for travellers.
Ministry of health and family welfare adds Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of new COVID variant 'Omicron' in South Africa.
Air travel may have become considerably easier in India, but airport lounges still leave a lot to be desired. Often, there is no space to stretch out for a nap or have a shower.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's dream to make Indian airports an international aviation hub may have to wait.
An immigration officer who had allegedly harassed a woman passenger at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi last month by asking her objectionable questions has been arrested by Delhi Police.
The tests have to be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India, Mandaviya said.
Their samples have been sent to the National Centre for Disease Control for genome sequencing to ascertain if they have the new variant, Omicron, which has been classified as 'variant of concern' by the WHO.
If Beijing succeeds in this multipronged effort to challenge the current dominant power, it will have not just economic but political and security consequences. There is no let-up in the South China Sea nor any de-escalation moves on the India-China border. This portends to ominous signalling from Beijing, observes China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
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