International Flights

Air India sees growth from domestic, short int'l flights in 2025: CEO

Air India will see most of the air traffic growth coming from domestic and short-haul international operations in 2025 as more narrow-body planes are joining the fleet and legacy wide-body aircraft will be going for retrofit next year, the airline's chief Campbell Wilson said on Thursday. The Tata Group-owned airline, which has embarked on a five-year transformation journey, expects to have a fleet of 400 planes by 2027. Currently, the total fleet strength of Air India Group, including Air India Express, is around 300 aircraft. During a select media briefing, Wilson, who has been at the helm of Air India for more than two years, said the airline group has a domestic market share of around 29 per cent and 55 per cent on the metro to metro routes. On top 120 domestic routes, the market share is about 40 per cent, he said. According to him, the retrofit of legacy wide-body aircraft will start in early 2025. "We had hoped to start retrofit of 787s and 777s by now. Unfortunately, the

Air India-Vistara merger complete; new entity to run 5,600+ weekly flights

Air India-Vistara merger: The combined airline will service 103 domestic and 71 international routes

Noida Airport to start flight operations from April 2025; key details

Noida International Airport is set to begin commercial operations on April 17, 2025, with 30 flights planned for both domestic and international destinations

India and China discuss resumption of direct passenger flights after 4 yrs

Direct passenger flights between India and China were suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic

IndiGo to introduce flights to 7 new global destinations by end of FY25

IndiGo airlines currently operates more than 2,000 flights daily, connecting around 120 destinations, including 33 international cities

Akasa on path to profitability; will launch more int'l flights: Co-founder

Akasa Air is well on the path to profitability and will fly to more international destinations, including in South Asia and Southeast Asia, according to its Co-Founder Aditya Ghosh. In less than two years of taking to the skies, Akasa Air has a fleet of 24 planes and has more than 4,000 employees. In an interview to PTI in the national capital, Ghosh, who has donned multiple and diverse roles during his career, said that airlines are becoming more of a consumption story in India. "We will increasingly see it as consumer-focused businesses where the learnings which are there from ecommerce companies will help us address the needs and behaviour of consumers better in the transportation business," he said. Among other roles, he had served as IndiGo's President and Whole Time Director for ten years till 2018. When a customer-focused and employee-centric organisation is being built, it is also important to build a financially sustainable business, Ghosh said and emphasised that Akasa A

GoAir temporarily loses slots and foreign bilateral rights amid insolvency

Bilateral air service agreements between airlines and countries allow them to operate international flights; slots for these flights are allocated by the DGCA and civil aviation ministry

International traffic expected to grow faster than domestic in FY25: ICRA

While the domestic passenger traffic is expected to grow at 8-10 per cent Y-o-Y to 330-340 mn, the international passenger traffic is likely to increase by 10-14 per cent Y-o-Y to 80 mn, it mentioned

Air Vanuatu files for bankruptcy after cancelling all international flights

Air Vanuatu filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday a day after the South Pacific state-owned carrier cancelled all international flights, stranding thousands of travellers. The airline on Wednesday cancelled more than 20 flights to and from the Australian cities of Sydney and Brisbane, and the New Zealand city of Auckland for the rest of the week. The airline said it was the result of extended maintenance requirements on their aircraft. Ernst & Young Australia's Morgan Kelly, Justin Walsh and Andrew Hanson were appointed liquidators in an equivalent of a US Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the firm said in a statement. The liquidators said safety and maintenance checks would be made before normal operations resumed. Kelly said the airline's existing management team would remain in place. Air Vanuatu is critical to the people of the Republic of Vanuatu and a strategically important business to the nation, Kelly said. Our team is working closely with management to ensure continuity of ...

Air India Express: 85 flights cancelled; Air India to support on 20 routes

If a passenger's flight is cancelled or delayed more than 3 hours, they have the option to either receive a full refund on the flight or reschedule it for a later date without any additional fees

Women pre-book window seats, men prefer aisle in domestic flights: MMT

MakeMyTrip's 'India Travel Trends Report' showed that 50% of all domestic flyers pick flights between 9 am and 6 pm, irrespective of the destination or the origin

Delhi Airport's T2 conversion to all-international delayed till next April

The move by DIAL comes as an effort to prevent a repeat of the challenges faced during the previous winter, when crucial infrastructure underwent repairs for a significant portion

Airtel announces in-flight connectivity for users on international routes

Partnership with UK-based Aeromobile will allow Airtel users surf the web, make online calls on 19 global carriers

Akasa Air to operate first international flight to Doha on March 28

Currently, 68 flights per week are operated by four carriers between Mumbai and Doha

Akasa Air to start international ops from March 28; first flight to Doha

Akasa Air on Friday said it will start international operations with flight services to Doha starting from March 28. "Starting 28 March 2024, Akasa Air will operate four non-stop flights a week, connecting Mumbai with Doha, enhancing air connectivity between Qatar and India," the airline said in a release. Akasa Air Founder and CEO Vinay Dube said its foray into Qatar marks the next phase of growth as it continues the journey towards becoming one of the world's top 30 airlines by the turn of this decade. Currently, the airline, which started flying in August 2022, operates 23 Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

Vistara offers complimentary WiFi to loyalty programme members on flights

Full-service carrier Vistara on Monday said it has started providing complimentary Wi-Fi internet connectivity onboard its Boeing 787 and Airbus A321Neo-operated international flights for all members of its loyalty programme, Club Vistara. With this, Vistara becomes the first domestic airline to offer such a facility, a company statement said. The facility is available to all Club Vistara members, regardless of their membership tier, accumulated points and tenure of membership, among others, the airline said. Enrolment in Club Vistara does not require any charges or fees, according to the airline. The offering includes unlimited data ideal for messaging apps while the Platinum members and business class customers get an additional 50MB of data, which can be used for web browsing, engaging on social media, and staying connected through messaging and e-mail services, it said. To enjoy both benefits, Platinum members must activate the 50MB surf package before enabling the unlimited .

Air India to add more than 400 weekly flights over the next 6 months

On international routes, Air India plans to operate over 200 weekly flights, of which over 80 have already been added

Technical issue affects outbound international services at Chennai airport

A server problem led to disruption in services at the International Departure at the city airport here on Wednesday, affecting 9 outbound services and about 1,500 international passengers, officials said. The technical issue that was noticed around 1.30 am was fixed by 6 am, they said. Only international departures were affected, impacting printing of boarding passes and baggage handling, officials added. International services to destinations including Colombo, Dubai and Bangkok suffered delays.

Akasa Air gets aviation ministry's nod for starting international flights

Little over a year after commencing operations, Akasa Air has received approval from the civil aviation ministry for starting international flights and is looking to fly to destinations in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The airline, which is currently grappling with pilot shortage issues, has a fleet of 20 aircraft and plans to start flying to overseas destinations by year-end. Akasa Air Founder and CEO Vinay Dube on Wednesday said the ministry has designated the airline as an international scheduled operator. "This new designation will allow us to fly internationally, enabling us to take one step closer to our dream of launching international operations before the end of this year. "We are now working with all relevant authorities on our request for traffic rights and will soon be able to announce the international destination we will fly to," he said in a statement. Dube said the airline is targeting destinations within the range of a Boeing 737 MAX from India i

Aviation ministry permits Akasa Air to launch international flights

The young airline, which is facing pilot exits, is yet to announce its first international destination