New Record With 456,000 Domestic Flyers in a Day

Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands, together making up nearly 70% of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)’s portfolio in India, are going to remain the “driver of growth” in the market, said the company’s South West Asia Managing Director, Sudeep Jain.

The U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai has cleared the visa backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and said that applicants can schedule appointments for immigrant visa interviews within the standard time frame, the U.S. Consulate General Mumbai said in a statement.

Airbus plans to deepen its industrial presence in India, Chief Executive Guillaume Faury said on Wednesday after meeting the country’s prime minister.

Air India is close to placing landmark orders for as many as 500 jetliners worth tens of billions of dollars from both Airbus and Boeing as it carves out an ambitious renaissance under the Tata Group conglomerate, industry sources said on Sunday.

Air India has sealed a jumbo deal for about 500 new planes worth more than $100 billion at list prices, in what could become the single largest order by any airline as it seeks to reinvent itself under its new owners, industry sources told Reuters.

India is expected to overtake Germany to become the world’s third most powerful travel and tourism market by 2032, according to World Travel and Tourism Council’s Economic Impact Research.

India will boost Ayush treatment — indigenous medicine and associated treatment techniques — through health tourism, informed Ayush minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Set up in 2014, the Ayush ministry is responsible for developing education, research and propagation of traditional medicine systems in India. The government has been making efforts to boost traditional medicines for international tourists visiting India for treatments under Ayush methods — ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha and homeopathy, among others. Earlier this year, the Ayush ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding with the tourism ministry’s India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) to work together for the promotion of medical value travel (MVT) in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine. The Indian medical value travel market size is valued at $5–6 billion and is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2026. With 5,00,000 international patients annually, India is poised for a giant leap in medical tourism on the back of soaring cost of treatment in the West and the Russia-Ukraine war driving more patients for medical care to the country. In addition, the government’s initiatives under the ‘Heal in India’ scheme — of accrediting Ayush centers and launching Ayush e-visa — is also expected to fuel medical tourism.

India plans to open up to 50 new tourism destinations, promote green tourism, launch a publicity campaign in overseas markets and operationalize 59 new air routes during its presidency of the G20 this year, said Arvind Singh, secretary at the ministry of tourism. “India’s tourism sector is showing one of the strongest recoveries in the Asia Pacific region. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the country registered 6.19 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2022 — a growth of 305 percent as compared to 1.52 million in 2021,” he said while speaking at the G20 Tourism Expo held in the north Indian state of Rajasthan. “We have recommended 59 new routes to the ministry of civil aviation under the regional air connectivity scheme which has been successful. Of this, 51 routes are already operational,” Singh added. The government is pushing green initiatives to promote responsible tourism in the country and authorities plan to ensure small businesses have the resources for green investments and to create local jobs. 

Indian conglomerate Tata Group has sought fair-trade regulator Competition Commission of India‘s approval for a merger between its Air India and Vistara — the company’s joint venture with Singapore Airlines — into a single full service carrier called Air India. This is separate from the already underway (and regulator-approved) merger of Air India Express and Air Asia India into a single low cost carrier, named Air India Express. Tata would hold 51 percent of the total equity of the merged entity while Singapore Airlines would own a 25.1 percent minority stake, according to a filing on the regulator’s website. Air India would also absorb all Vistara employees. Vistara currently has about 5,103 employees, and around 80 percent are operational staff, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers. The merger, announced in November last year, would create a stronger rival to India’s dominant carrier IndiGo and help Singapore Airlines solidify its foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Air India recently placed a mega order for 470 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus as it plans to become a dominant player globally. 

India is on the cusp of an aviation boom as many call the country the “most promising aviation market” globally post-Covid.

Planemakers can’t build them but airlines can’t stop buying them.

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invited U.S. aircraft maker Boeing to ramp up investmentin the country, given India’s flourishing aerospace and civil aviation market. The planemaker had earlier announced that it will invest about $24 million on setting up a logistics center in the country to stock spares for commercial airlines. During an interaction with a delegation from Boeing’s global senior leadership team, the minister underlined India’s focus on repositioning itself as a maintenance, repair and operations hub that can potentially cater to a wide region spanning Europe, Africa and the Far East. Earlier in March, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia also highlighted it was time for India to look at manufacturing aerospace products, adding that the aggregate fleet size of domestic carriers is estimated to reach around 2,000 aircraft over the next five to seven years. Sitharaman further emphasized the opportunities available for companies to relocate to India to be a hub for the region. In reference to Indian airlines’ record aircraft order, she informed the delegation about Gujarat International Finance Tech-city banks’ aircraft leasing operations.