The Tata-SIA airline Vistara is gearing up to station an indigenously developed robot, RADA, at its signature lounge at Delhi airport's Terminal 3. Powered by AI, the robot is programmed to scan boarding passes, provide information on the terminal, departure gates, real-time flight status and weather conditions of destination city etc. And RADA can also entertain people by playing games and multimedia content, says Sangeeta Tanwar.
In a move which could affect the Jet-Etihad deal or start-up carriers like Tata-SIA or AirAsia India, DGCA has made it clear that foreign airlines or investors would not have the right to control the management of an Indian carrier.
They say it will have severe impact on their financial strength
They say better late than never. For the Tatas, the original owners of Air India, bringing back the airline to its fold is worth the wait even if the attempt to privatise the bleeding national carrier by successive governments has taken over two decades. While many airlines have come and gone from the Indian skies since the time when the first move was made to privatise Air India to date, the salt-to-software conglomerate has never let the love affair with aviation, more so with Air India that its former chairman Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD) had, to go off the radar. It is said that Tata group executives used to complain in private that JRD -- the pioneer of the Indian aviation industry -- spent more time worrying about Air India than the Tata group when he was heading both the entities.
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 government was also working on a package to promote connectivity and airports in the North Eastern states
The inaugural flight took off in the presence of Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Mahesh Sharma, along with a number of other people.
Singapore Airlines will hold 49 per cent stake in the airline, while the rest will be held by the Tata group.
Domestic airlines may increase foreign flight frequencies
Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL's JioMart is set to launch a slew of new products including financial services, electronics to airline tickets to take on the competition from upcoming rivals like the Tata Super app and other established players including PayTM, Amazon and Flipkart. This comes at a time when RIL's e-commerce revenues are set to grow by 35 per cent to $15 billion within four years and its core retail revenue is expected to grow at the same pace to $44 billion, as per a forecast by Goldman Sachs. "The Tata vs JioMart war will be the next big corporate battle to watch. "While Tata has an upper hand like in-house products and brands, RIL has the backing of global biggies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft," said head of a rating firm asking not to be quoted.
Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Vistara also operated all women crew flights, though on their domestic network.
Malik, who was travelling on Vistara's Mumbai-Delhi flight UK 902 on Tuesday when the incident happened, also complained to the airlines about "poor handling" of wheelchair-bound passengers by the airline staff.
The group began to outperform the broader market only with the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 while earlier it was largely keeping pace with the Sensex. The group's market cap is up 164.4 per cent since the end of March 2020 against a 105 per cent rally in the Sensex.
For debt-laden Jet Airways, bitter foe Tata may turn into timely saviour.
With the launch of Tata AirAsia and Tata-SIA, the added capacity will bring down fares considerably, say observers.
Tata-SIA will kick off with full-service domestic operations.
Air India said it has also written to the Shiv Sena communicating the decision to cancel the ticket. Shiv Sena Secretary Anil Desai said that he has asked Gaikwad to change his travel plans as the party doesn't want the tensions to escalate.
Domestic air passenger volume spiked 70.46 per cent in October to 89.85 lakh over the same month of 2020, DGCA data showed on Thursday. The Indian carriers had flown 52.71 lakh passengers in October last year. It may be recalled that domestic traffic along with international flight services remained shut for two months until May 25, 2020, when scheduled air services were resumed in a graded manner.
Following the entry of Tata-SIA and AirAsia into the Indian aviation market, the domestic aviation industry is seeing increased interest from private entities.
The airline will launch an additional daily flight on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Ahmedabad routes during the period.
Tata-SIA joint venture carrier Vistara on Friday announced scaling up of operations and said it plans to operate 164 flights per week.
Vistara is keen to take to global skies.
It and Vistara both book slots here; former also likely to launch Mumbai flights from early 2015.
A senior DGCA official said 23,403 departures per week have been finalised, covering 103 airports, which is 1.2 per cent higher than the 23,117 operated during the previous winter schedule.
"Tata Sons board is meeting tomorrow (Friday) to consider the proposal to bid for Jet Airways," people in the know of the development told PTI.
Spicejet receives maximum complaints regarding refunds
By 2025, most of India's large cities would require a second airport, and Mumbai may need a third airport by 2030.
India perhaps is the only market in the world where full-service and low-cost fares have become one.
Chief Operating Officer, Sanjiv Kapoor will be leaving the company effective October 31, 2015 after two years with the organisation.
The new initiative allows passengers to amend or cancel their booking without any penalty fee by simply using the "manage booking" facility
Vistara was operating from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Goa.
Full service product with complementary meal service would be provided on all domestic flights from December 1, with the buy-on-board concept being discontinued, an airline statement said.
Delhi is the second Indian destination after Bengaluru.
Airline officials said the operational launch may be held in the later part of October.
The average age should be around 35 years, the sources said, adding those older should be shifted to ground operations.
The government has begun consultations on relaxing the eligibility criteria for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad, Rajya Sabha was informed.
AirAsia India, which is using the training facilities of its parent airline AirAsia in Malaysia, plans to set up similar facilities in India in the coming years, airline sources said.
Interestingly, the full service carrier's launch coincides with the concluding day of the the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations scheduled to be held in Gujarat's capital city Gandhinagar, near Ahmedabad, from January 7 to January 9.
Almost all Indian airlines like SpiceJet, IndiGo, GoAir, Jet Airways and Air India, have been offering discounted fares on domestic sectors almost on a month-to-month basis.
The first Airbus A-320 aircraft of Tata-SIA joint venture Vistara airline, painted with its logo and livery, landed at the IGI Airport in New Delhi on Wednesday, taking the carrier a step closer to its launch.
