Air India tips

The Indian aviation industry has recorded its highest-ever half yearly domestic passenger traffic. Between January and June 2024, Indian airlines carried 79.35 million passengers. This was an increase of over 4% from the previous year, as per data from Indian aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation. 

The Indian government is exploring adventure tourism as an avenue of promoting destinations across the country. For instance, earlier this month, the newly appointed minister of tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat went skydiving in Haryana on World Skydiving Day. 

Two years ago, Gatwick had no flights to India, and today the airport connects around 24 weekly Air India flights to four cities — Kochi, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, and Goa. Next month, Air India will be connecting Bengaluru to London Gatwick. Catch Stephanie Wear, the vice president of aviation development, at London Gatwick Airport in conversation with Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia on Gatwick’s ambitious plans for expanding its connectivity with India.

India’s foreign exchange earnings through tourism in 2023 was INR 2.3 trillion ($27.5 billion), according to the government’s latest Economic Survey for 2023-24 – a 66% gain over 2022.

Paytm started as a financial services company in India, but is now diversifying its revenue streams, with a special focus on travel. The fintech company often refers to itself as an online travel agency and is looking at travel as a core business segment.

India’s largest online travel agency MakeMyTrip and budget airline Air India Express have partnered to launch ‘Xpress Holidays’ – a platform that would allow travelers to book end-to-end holiday packages. 

The Tata group is likely to retain the senior management of full-service airline Air India post its merger with Vistara, an Economic Times report said. While Campbell Wilson will continue as the CEO of Air India, the merged entity will have Nipun Aggarwal as the chief commercial and transformation officer, while Sanjay Sharma will continue as CFO. 

The western state of Rajasthan has signed an agreement with the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan (FHTR) to develop tourism in the state. Tourism is a key source of revenue for the state. 

We’ve written a lot about India’s rising middle class – and how they’re set to keep spending more on travel. But now we’re hearing more about India’s high net worth travelers in a new report from Marriott International.

India is now the third-largest domestic aviation market, after the U.S. and China, according to data by aviation analytics firm OAG. In April 2024, India’s domestic airline capacity was about 15.6 million, up from 8 million in April 2014. 

If you thought the IPL season in India was big, just wait until you hear about the IPO season. Following TBO Tek’s debut on the Indian stock exchange last month, online travel company Ixigo listed on the Indian bourses this week. Join Skift’s Peden Doma Bhutia and Bulbul Dhawan as they discuss the market sentiment towards travel IPOs. Also, discover why Air India’s CEO stated that the airline’s investment in new aircraft will depend on the government’s policies on bilateral agreements and seat capacity grants, and why Accor’s CEO finds opening a hotel in India to be a tedious process. Catch all this and more in the latest edition of the Skift India Travel Podcast

India’s National Stock Exchange has launched the Nifty India Tourism Index to capture the performance of travel and tourism companies within the Nifty 500 Index. The index is used by investors to manage their investment portfolios and serve as a benchmark for different purposes, including tracking expected returns of certain segments. 

Budget airline IndiGo continued to hold the top position in the domestic aviation market with a 61.6% market share in May, up from 60.6% in April. Air India was a distant second at 13.7%, and Vistara followed with a 9.2% share, Directorate General of Civil Aviation data showed.

Low-cost carrier Akasa Air is on its path to profitability and will be expanding its international network, Indian news agency PTI said quoting Aditya Ghosh, the airline’s co-founder.

Indian full-service carrier Air India has said its plans to invest in new aircraft will depend on the government’s policy on bilateral agreements and the seat capacity being granted, CEO Campbell Wilson said this week at an aviation event in India. 

Budget airline Air India Express has announced that it will be commencing operations from the Hindon airport in the national capital region (NCR), in addition to its ongoing operations from the Delhi airport. With this, it has become the first airline to operate from two airports in the NCR. 

Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, making it part owner and giving it early access to the generative AI technology. 

India is becoming a fast-growing source of outbound tourism, according to a report by consulting firm McKinsey and Company.

From TBO Tek’s IPO launch and Akasa Air’s international network to the future of Vistara’s loyalty program post its merger with Air India, join Skift Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia and India Reporter Bulbul Dhawan as they discuss some of the biggest headlines from India.

As the merger of Air India and Vistara airlines picks up steam, the process of merging their loyalty programs has also begun.

The merging of Air India and Vistara seems ahead of schedule, according to reports in Indian media that cite Air India CEO Campbell Wilson’s comments at a town hall meeting with the employees.