Air Traffic tips

From air traffic control strikes to extreme weather, last year saw millions of passengers face flight delays across Europe.

Adani Enterprises is planning to list its airport business — Adani Airport Holdings — by fiscal 2028, according to media reports that quoted Jugeshinder Singh, the group’s chief financial officer.

For the past 18 months, French air travel has been dogged by strikes so chaotic and disruptive that one strike day was dubbed by the press a “journée noir” (black day) for the nation’s airports. 

SNCTA, the largest union representing air traffic controllers in France, has dropped plans for a 24-hour strike on Thursday after reaching a deal on pay and working conditions.

France is bracing for airport chaos on Monday as air traffic controllers go on strike.

The Indian tour and travel sector anticipates 12-14% growth in the current and upcoming fiscal years, according to a report by Crisil. 

A lack of common measures often causes confusion among airlines' customers and leads to hidden extra costs.

We all appreciate the pilots who fly us safely to our destination. Some of us even clap for them on landing - much to the chagrin of fellow travellers.

Travel has been plagued by strikes and walkouts over the last couple of years, but France is looking to improve the situation for passengers.

French air traffic control currently works on a system developed in the 1970s - sometimes still using paper strips to represent incoming planes. Though it has been regularly upgraded over the years, it is scheduled for a major overhaul in early 2024 due to rapid growth in air traffic.

Thousands of passengers at Gatwick Airport in the UK faced diversions, delays and cancellations yesterday evening due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.

We are thrilled to announce a new event coming next year, the Skift India Summit in Delhi-NCR, happening March 20-21, 2024. This follows the successful launch of our India newsletter, Skift India Report, the Skift India Travel Podcast, with more features to come. 

Issues with the UK's air traffic control systems have grounded thousands of flights on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

As India plans to increase connectivity to the rest of the country, the government has approved 21 greenfield airports in smaller cities. A total of 11 such airports are operational so far, the latest being the Shivamogga airport in the south Indian state of Karnataka. Since 2018, eight airports, namely Pakyong (Sikkim), Kannur (Kerala), Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Kushinagar (Uttar Pradesh), Orvakal (Andhra Pradesh) and Mopa (Goa) airports have been operationalized apart from Shivamogga. The government of India has formulated the greenfield policy for construction of greenfield airport, for which the state government or airport operator has to identify the site and get the feasibility study conducted for construction of airport. Greenfield projects are initiated on undeveloped ground and do not include the renovation or demolition of an existing building. There are no constraints from any previous work on the ground. The government has also granted site clearance for construction of three greenfield airports — Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the projects rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective state government in case it is the project proponent. With India’s passenger traffic expected to double by 2030, International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects India to be the world’s third-largest air passenger market by 2030. In the post pandemic recovery, the civil aviation industry in India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries.

The U.S. aims to increase visa interview appointments for Indian students by 30 percent this summer, said U.S. Consul General Mike Hankey during his recent visit to the country. “Last year, we sent more than 1.25 lakh Indian students to the U.S., setting a new record for Indian students going to the U.S. in a year and establishing India as the leading country of sending students. This year we are trying to increase that number (of students) further,” he told news agency Press Trust of India. In another development, the U.S. visitor visa wait times in India dropped by 50 percent — from an average of 669 days in mid-March to 337 days in early April — according to the U.S. Travel Association. The industry lobby group attributed the wait time reduction to the U.S. State Department’s initiatives this year to reduce the visa backlog, such as bringing processing staff in on weekends, making overseas embassies available to Indian nationals in other countries and hiring more staff. Applicants in India had an especially absurd wait time. In January, for example, they had to wait 999 days for an interview at the Mumbai embassy. 

Nearly 51 percent of Indians have fallen victim to online scams while trying to book holidays to save money, according to digital security company McAfee Corp’s Safer Summer Holidays travel report. Amid the financial pressures of today’s economic environment, Indians are more likely to seek out a bargain deal online (54 percent), move quickly to snap up a deal (50 percent), try a new booking site (44 percent) and even a new destination (47 percent), to save money, the report said. Travel scams can take many forms, with the report finding 27 percent of Indians have been tricked into making payments through fraudulent platforms and 36 percent have had their identity stolen when booking online. Of this portion, 13 percent entered passport information and 23 percent provided other personally identifiable information to a fake website, it said. Overall, 59 percent of Indians are estimated to be more concerned about digital threats than physical ones, such as being pickpocketed, and 94 percent of Indian adults hold either some or high concern about their identity being compromised as part of their travel, the report noted. The report is based on a survey of 7,000 people across seven countries, including 1,010 from India. Earlier in March, the Google pages of many hotels — including premier properties — in the Himalayan hill towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal were defaced.

India’s domestic air passenger traffic was strong in May – 15 percent higher than a year earlier and 8 percent higher than pre-Covid levels, according to ICRA’s monthly report on the country’s aviation industry. The traffic was estimated at 13.18 million for May, 2.3 percent up from April. The growth in traffic comes even as cash-strapped airline Go First suspended its flights on May 3 and is yet to restart operations.Airlines’ capacity was higher by about 1.4 percent. The international passenger traffic for Indian carriers for the financial year 2023 stood at approximately 23.94 million, improving from the pre-Covid levels of about 22.72 million. 

Airbnb has signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s heritage stays and promote cultural tourism. As part of the ministry’s “Visit India 2023” initiative, Airbnb will launch a dedicated ‘Soul of India’ microsite; offer support to hosts in untapped tourist areas; assist them in promoting their homestays; build host capacity; and foster a culture of responsible hosting.

IndiGo’s co-founder Rakesh Gangwal and his family have disclosed they would sell up to $450 million of shares in the budget carrier’s parent holding, InterGlobe Aviation. That represents about 4% of his stake and would be the largest block deal yet by Gangwal. 

Editor’s Note: our 

On the 35th day of the U.S. partial government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a staff shortage in air traffic controllers and that flights to at least one airport were halted, causing delays. Flights through La Guardia, Newark, and Philadelphia airports were the first to be affected, around the same time that the FAA announced the sick outs.