Tag Archives: coronavirus

Saving face or saving Jet Airways

The Jet Airways revival is stalled over the issue of the grant of slots. Jet’s position is that they should be able to reclaim the slots that were “temporarily assigned” to other airlines. The government on the other hand has indicated that the government will consider the airline’s request for slots as per existing policy. Effectively saying that Jet would …

Read More »

Guide to traveling on Air-Bubble and Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flights (Updated 6 Dec 20)

by Sanjiv Kapoor Former COO, Spicejet and former CSCO of Vistara I keep getting questions on testing and quarantine requirements for those returning to India on the scheduled “air bubble” flights from places like the US, UK, EU, and UAE, as well as on the special ad-hoc “Vande Bharat Mission” or VBM flights that operate from time to time from …

Read More »

Guide to traveling on Air-Bubble and Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flights

by Sanjiv Kapoor Former COO, Spicejet and former CSCO of Vistara This guide has been updated. Please click here to view the updated guide. I keep getting questions on testing and quarantine requirements for those returning to India on the scheduled “air bubble” flights from places like the US, UK, EU, and UAE, as well as on the special ad-hoc …

Read More »

Supreme Court rules on airline refunds to passengers

Earlier this morning the Supreme Court ruled on the issue of airlines refusing to issue refunds to passengers who had booked tickets and were unable to fly during or after the lockdown. While the judgment is fairly detailed, broadly it states that: If a passenger or travel agent has booked a ticket during the lockdown period (from 25th March, 2020 …

Read More »

Emirates to operate additional repatriation flights to/from Bangalore in August

Emirates Boeing 777-200ER. Copyright Vedant Agarwal.

Middle eastern carrier, Emirates has announced that it will operate repatriation flights between Dubai and Bangalore on 21, 23 and 25 August 2020. The schedule for these flights are: Flight Number From To Departure Arrival EK 565 BLR DXB 10:25 12:45 EK 564 DXB BLR 03:15 08:55 The flights can be booked on Emirates website and are shown as being …

Read More »

Lufthansa will resume Germany to India passenger flights from 13 August

Lufthansa Boeing 747-8i D-ABYI 'Fanhansa Livery'.

German flag carrier Lufthansa will resume inbound passenger operations to India from 13 August 2020. The routes being reinstated are: Frankfurt to Delhi (Airbus A340-300) Munich to Delhi (Airbus A350-900) Frankfurt to Bangalore (Airbus A330-300) Frankfurt to Mumbai (Airbus A330-300) The airline has already been operating outbound flights from the three cities to Frankfurt and Munich. As per the latest …

Read More »

Karnataka guidelines for international arrivals (V4, August 2020)

The government of Karnataka has issued revised guidelines for international arrivals into the state. Passengers must pre-register before travelling As with the earlier guidelines, all passengers must pre-register on the Karnataka COVID war room website at least 72 hours before travel. Categorized arrivals All passengers will be categorized on arrival. Passengers showing any symptoms of COVID-19 will be sent to …

Read More »

Airline hubs are facing a huge challenge

The Corona pandemic continues to impact traffic volumes across the globes. Airports that were once bursting at the seams are now eerily silent while many of the terminals remain empty. Runways that would count seconds until the next arrival and departure now wait longingly for aircraft to alight. The buzz of jet engines has been interspersed with large periods of silence. …

Read More »

The contactless procedure of flying through Bangalore airport

With domestic flights set to resume from tomorrow, the Karnataka government had outlined rules for passengers arriving into the state. Now Bangalore airport has outlined the process that will have to be followed by passengers to fly through the airport. As part of its precautions against COVID-19, the airport has launched a “Parking-to-Boarding contactless journey”. Which includes: Pre-Entry All passengers …

Read More »

Quarantine rules for air passengers traveling to Karnataka

With the government of India allowing domestic air passenger flights to resume from 25th May, there have been doubts about the quarantine rules that passengers will be subjected to when they arrive at their destination. The government of Karnataka has released a detailed a standard operating procedure (SOP) for all returnees to the state. The highlights of this document are: …

Read More »

How the government could spin repatriation flights to oil India’s stagnant aviation sector

A tail parade of each of Air India's Boeing aircraft as in 2011. The 747-400, 777-300ER, 777-200LR and 737-800.

Guest post by Shivam Vahia. The Government of India (GoI) has undertaken a massive exercise dubbed “Vande Bharat Mission” to bring back Indians stuck in other countries amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. These flights are technically “repatriation” flights and not “evacuation” because the passengers are paying for the seat, and the state isn’t bearing the end-cost. Unlike previous efforts like the …

Read More »

New repatriation flights from 16 May from Australia, Canada, Europe, Central Asia, Russia and more

Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner line number 35 test registered N1015 (later became VT-ANH) at the India Aviation show, Hyderabad March 2012. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal.

Following the first week of repatriation flights operated by Air India and Air India Express, phase two of the Vande Bharat repatriation flights have now been released. Flights will be operated from the following countries which were not covered in phase one: Afghanistan – Kabul Armenia – Yeravan Australia – Sydney, Melbourne Belarus – Minsk Canada – Vancouver, Toronta France …

Read More »

How to book a repatriation flight from India to USA, UK and Singapore

When the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) announced repatriation flights to bring people back to India, it was unclear whether people would be allowed to fly out of India on the aircraft that would bring stranded Indians back. Yesterday, after a notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Air India began taking bookings for flights to the United States, United …

Read More »

Virgin Atlantic to leave Gatwick, retire 747s and cut 3,150 jobs

Virgin Atlantic has announced its plan for their “post-Covid19 future“. The airline expects that demand will take three years to return to post corona levels and that it will have to reshape and resize its business to adapt. The CEO of Virgin Atlantic Shai Weiss commented “We have weathered many storms since our first flight 36 years ago, but none …

Read More »

Fares for repatriation flights to India

Air India Airbus A320 VT-EXC.

Yesterday a schedule for the first seven days of repatriation flights to India were released. Unlike the initial evacuation flights that were operated by Air India, the flights that will be operated from 7 May 2020 will be charged. The fares for these flights have been released: Repatriation fares on Air India Repatriation fares on Air India Express For more …

Read More »

Schedule of Air India Express repatriation flights to India

On Monday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) announced that it would begin repatriation flights to India from 7 May 2020. Following that a schedule of flights that would be operated by Air India was released. Air India Express will operate flights from the below cities to India: Abu Dhabi Bahrain Doha Dubai Kuala Lumpur Kuwait Muscat Sharjah Singapore Links …

Read More »

Schedule of repatriation flights to India

VT-ALA Air India Boeing 777-200LR at Delhi Airport.

Earlier today we wrote that the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has released a calendar of repatriation flights that will be operated to bring Indian’s stranded abroad back to India. All the flights will be operated by Air India and Air India Express. Links to register for these flights are available in our earlier story. In addition to the flights …

Read More »

Details of repatriation flights to India announced

Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner line number 35 test registered N1015 (later became VT-ANH) at the India Aviation show, Hyderabad March 2012. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal.

The Government of India had previously announced that it would begin repatriation flights to India from 7 May. Details have now been released for flights being operated from the 7th to 14th of May. How to register for flights The flights will be operated from the following countries to various cities in India, to register click on the link of …

Read More »

Indian airlines operated over 1400 cargo flights during the lockdown

While passenger air traffic has come to a standstill since the beginning of the lockdown. Cargo movement has become essential for transporting essential and other goods into and across the country. While India has only one domestic cargo-only airline BlueDart (SpiceJet also operates three Boeing 737 freighters under the name SpiceXpress), every passenger flight carries an average of around a …

Read More »
+OK