Air India travel tips

Air India has entered into an interline partnership with Bangkok Airways that will allow the Tata Group-owned airline’s passengers connections to 10 Southeast Asian destinations beyond the Thai capital. 

Last week, Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific announced the resumption of three non-stop weekly flights from Chennai.

IndiGo is developing a wrist device designed to gauge pilot fatigue and alertness levels before and after flights, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters The budget carrier will work in partnership with the French aerospace conglomerate, Thales Group, and also intends to appoint a consultant to improve its fatigue risk management procedures. 

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.

Travel fintech start-up SanKash has observed a surge in travel bookings from September 8 to 10 as the capital city of New Delhi prepares for a scheduled closure for the G20 Summit. 

Only 25% of Indians traveling abroad purchase travel insurance well in advance while making travel arrangements, while the majority of them wait until the last three days to buy it, according to data compiled by insurance aggregator Policybazaar.

Antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Tata group’s plan to merge its full-service carriers Air India and Vistara. 

Hotel occupancy and room rates have bounced back to pre-pandemic numbers, primarily due to the soaring demand for the G20 Summitto be held in New Delhi on September 9 to 10. 

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited has joined forces with luxury hotel group Oberoi Hotels and Resorts to co-manage three hospitality projects spread across India and the UK.

Clearly Vinod Kannan, the CEO of Vistara, may have had to field this question on the possible Vistara-Air India merger one too many times.

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

Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines have agreed to consolidate Air India and Vistara by March 2024.

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.

AirAsia Aviation Group on Friday announced a joint venture with Cambodia-based Sivilai Asia to launch a new low-cost carrier — AirAsia Cambodia.

Indian carrier Vistara reported its first-ever net profit for the quarter ending December 2022, according to statement from the airline on Monday.  

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.

The Tatas will let go of Indian full-service carrier Vistara as they look to merge the airline with the more “internationally-recognized” Air India, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said on Monday.

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.

The Google pages of many hotels — including premier properties — in the Himalayan hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal have been defaced for fraud ahead of the holiday travel rush. Anybody looking for hotels in Darjeeling using the search engine will come across prominent photographs containing the hackers’ phone numbers over a section displaying pictures of rooms and amenities. “We have been lately facing incidents where fraudsters are posting their mobile numbers with payment options to book not only our properties but also several others in the region. We are continually monitoring this and flagging all such posts as ‘spam’ for Google to review and have them removed,” said Viraj Oberoi, director of Elgin Hotels & Resorts, a luxury heritage hotels chain with properties in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim. Cyber miscreants are removing hotel details and creating their own profiles with personal contact details, said Sandipan Ghosh, general secretary of regional travel trade body Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators’ Association. “Surprisingly, they’re also luring customers to pay in advance while knocking off the goods and services tax charge,” Ghosh said. In India, the goods and services tax on hotels range anywhere between 12-18 percent, depending on the pricing. Customers, while trying to book hotels online for Darjeeling, have been duped to pay advance amounts to bank accounts which don’t belong to the owners of the accommodations. “We’re in touch with the cyber cell department to track such incidents closely and take action accordingly,” Ghosh added. 

Taking note of the massive delay in processing visas, the U.S. is taking steps to reduce wait times for Indians. The U.S. Consulate in Mumbai has brought in consular officers from around the world to help out with visa operations. “All hands on deck to reduce visa wait times! Our incredible team of consular officers have temporarily left their regular duties around the world, from the State Department in DC to the U.S. Consulate Naha, to help out with visa operations in Mumbai,” the consulate in Mumbai tweeted. Reducing visa delays has been a priority for the U.S. consulates in India as wait times for visitor visas are still around 614 days. The U.S. Embassy in India processed over 100,000 visa applications in January 2023, their highest total in a single month and the highest in any month since July 2019, according to media reports.

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