VISA tips

Indian carriers have occupied a lion’s share of international air traffic, which is more than pre-Covid times, as per data released by India’s aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This is testament to the fact that India could rank among the top three markets for outbound travel in the coming years. Leading this expansion in market share in low-cost carrier Indigo. Passengers carried on international flights operated by Indian carriers accounted for 43.5 percent of total overseas travel in the fourth quarter of 2022, up from 39.2 percent in the corresponding period of 2019. In 2020, during the same period, the market share of Indian carriers rose to 65.3 percent, and in 2021, the share of Indian carriers in the total international passenger traffic stands at 49.6 percent. Out of the 30 Indian cities from where international passengers embark/disembark, five Indian cities accounted for approximately 70.2 percent of international passenger traffic. Delhi tops the position in the category with a share of 28.3 percent, followed by Mumbai at 19.8 percent share and Chennai at 8.5 percent share). 

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.

India has restored e-visa services for the nationals of Saudi Arabia wanting to visit the country with immediate effect, the Embassy of India in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia tweeted last week. The facility which had been available for five categories of travel — e-tourist visa, e-business visa, e-medical visa, e-medical attendant visa and e-conference visa — was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. The application and payment of fees are required to be made for a minimum of four days in advance from the date of travel and wait for the approval. For online filling and submission of the application, applicants need to visit the official website — indianvisaonline.gov.in. Earlier, Saudi Arabia had announced a few exemptions for Indian nationals to obtain a visa for traveling to the country as it looks to India as a key source market for tourism, especially with Saudi’s ambition to achieve 100 million visits annually by 2030. Saudi Tourism Authority during its recent delegation visit to India, featured a range of meetings, industry round-tables and networking events followed by two roadshows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Saudi Tourism Authority has also, commenced an official partnership with the popular cricket meet — Indian Premier League.

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Indian companies have failed to set targets to reduce corporate travel emissions, according to an annual report by campaign group Transport & Environment. Globally, only 50 companies out of 322 have set targets to reduce business travel, with information technology (IT) services company Wipro paving the way in India. Wipro has achieved a 15-20 percent reduction in air travel emissions between the 2015 and 2020 period. Among all 10 Indian companies featured in the ranking report, only IT services provider Tech Mahindra reports on air travel emissions specifically. “Advancements taking place in India are mostly being led by the technology industry. We invite these technology companies to continue to work on their travel policies and demonstrate leadership to catalyze change in other industries,” said Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at Transport & Environment. Of the companies that have targets, only four companies meet the “gold standard” of reporting air travel emissions and commitment to reducing them by 50 percent or more, by 2025 or sooner. These are Novo Nordisk (pharmaceuticals, Denmark), Swiss Re (finance, Switzerland), Fidelity International (finance, Britain) and ABN Amro (finance, the Netherlands).

In line with its modernization drive, the Indian Railways has confirmed it will redevelop Thrissur railway station — in the south Indian state of Kerala — with airport-like infrastructure at a budget of $36.2 million to upgrade passenger amenities. “The modernization of Thrissur railway station will be completed by 2025. The action is taken keeping in mind the cultural heritage of Thrissur and the importance of Thrissur Pooram. The railway station will have a wide range of facilities, including a supermarket and a rest centre,” said PK Krishnadas, chairman of the railway ministry’s passenger amenities committee. Having started some time back with the modernization of Gandhinagar Capital railway station in Gujarat, Indian Railways’ spate of station beautification across the country now also includes New Delhi railway station, Bengaluru cantonment, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus, Ahmedabad junction, Chennai Egmore and Udaipur railway station, among others. The goal is to develop self-sustainable railway stations with world-class amenities, high standards of safety, security, comfort, user-friendly passenger facilities, and value-added services.

India’s largest private airport operator — Adani Airports will bid for about a dozen more airports in the country to expand its footprint in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market, confirmed the company’s chief executive officer Arun Bansal. “India will have 1 billion air passengers by 2040, with passenger traffic growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5 percent over the next 20 years,” he said. On their strategy to acquire more airports in the country, Bansal remarked, “Our strategy is simple, to create a scale [of operations]. If the bid condition is right, we will bid.” The Indian government recently privatized six airports — Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram — all of which were won by Adani Airports. Adani currently manages seven operational airports including Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and is also developing the Navi Mumbai airport in Maharashtra. The airport is expected to handle 90 million passengers per year by 2036. In the first phase, which is scheduled to be completed by December 2024, the airport will have a passenger handling capacity of 20 million. All of Adani’s airports have experienced significant growth in passenger traffic in recent years. The company’s six airports together saw a 92 percent increase in domestic passengers and a 133 percent increase in international passengers. The number of domestic flights increased by 58 percent, while international flights increased by 61 percent.

Credit card, payment and expense companies have seen a massive jump in transactions for the first quarter.

March was a record month for American Express, with the credit card company recording its highest ever spending volume following a surge in people booking flights and eating out.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Monday, May 1. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Tata Group-owned Air India’s low-cost carrier subsidiary Air India Express has hired over 280 pilots and 250 cabin crew during a recent recruitment drive conducted across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Approximately 300 pilots participated in the selection process conducted during the drive, the airline said. Air India Express said it has been actively focusing on strengthening its workforce since October last year, targeting vacancies for pilots and cabin crew members. In addition to the major metros, the airline has also been conducting walk-in recruitment drives in other cities and towns for cabin crew aspirants to meet the growing demand of its operations. Mainline carrier Air India also recently announced that it would be hiring more than 1,000 pilots, including captains and trainers, to support its fleet expansion plans. Air India Express’ hiring move comes during a turbulent period as crisis-hit carrier Go First becomes the second airline — after Jet Airways — in the past three years to halt operations. Recently, Go First was granted bankruptcy protection after it plunged into a financial crisis, sparked by what it called “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines that grounded about half of its 54 Airbus A320neos.

Investments in India’s hospitality industry are likely to surpass $2.3 billion over the next two to five years, with the addition of approximately 12,000 hotel rooms in 2023 alone. Real estate consulting firm CBRE South Asia’s report, Indian Hospitality Sector: On a Comeback Trail, predicts that the hotel room numbers are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 3.3 percent by 2025. Last month, three international hotel chains announced the debut of their luxury brands in the country. Hilton’s Waldorf Astoria and Minor Hotels’ Anantara brand are set to make their India debut in Jaipur, while Radisson has picked Hyderabad for the launch of itsRadisson Collection brand. The study further suggests that demand recovery is likely to outpace supply, benefiting key performance metrics of the hotel sector — such as occupancy rates, average daily rates, and revenue per available room — that are expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels in the coming year. For instance, occupancy in Indian hotels is expected to improve to 66 percent this year, according to hospitality research firm HVS Anarock’s latest report. India’s hospitality sector ended 2022 with occupancy in the 59-61 percent range — up 15-17 percentage points from the previous year, and a 94 percent growth in revenue per available room in 2022 compared with 2021. Some 166 new hotels with 14,885 rooms were signed in 2022, which is a 33 percent increase in brand signings by keys over the previous year. The government’s continued focus on reforms is also expected to further enhance the sector’s growth, with projections indicating that India’s tourism and hospitality sector may earn $50.9 billion in visitor exports by 2028, the CBRE report stated. 

Global aviation leasing watchdog Aviation Working Group — that monitors leasing and financing laws on behalf of planemakers and lessors — has placed India on a watchlist with a negative outlook. Citing India’s failure to comply with international aircraft repossession norms after cash-strapped airline Go First was granted bankruptcy protection, the UK-based entity’s outlook falls under the Cape Town Convention, an international treaty on plane repossessions. India’s score has been reduced to 3 from 3.5 earlier. The move could translate into higher leasing costs for other Indian carriers. India’s inability to process deregistration applications for aircraft, whose leases got terminated before a freeze was imposed, resulted in a negative outlook, the watchdog said in a notice. Go First’s lessors include SMBC Aviation Capital, CDB Aviation’s GY Aviation Leasing, Jackson Square Aviation and Bank of China Aviation. The inability to repossess Go First’s planes in a timely manner comes as Indian air travel is booming and local carriers, which regularly turn to lessors to help finance plane purchases, have ordered hundreds of new jets. Go First filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The airline is only the latest — after the failures of Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines — struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market.

Accurately measuring the climate impact of individual flights has been a thorny issue because the science is inexact. For example, Google Flights last year controversially dropped the inclusion of contrails, the streaking ice clouds that trap heat as they trail aircraft in the sky. They don’t contain CO2, but are believed to have a large effect on a flight’s contribution to global warming.

Navan, the corporate travel agency previously called TripActions, rolled out a feature that enables companies to retain the benefits of their Visa and Mastercard corporate cards and still gain access to Navan’s automated expense management features.

Online travel company Ixigo has introduced “Plan by Ixigo,” an artificial intelligence trip planner that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help plan itineraries and accommodation options. The tool also delivers real-time destination information and automatically maps and generates a detailed itinerary, along with weather and air quality index updates.

Long visa processing times are restricting destination marketers’ ability to attract new tourists from key international markets. 

Editors note: This post has been updated with new information.

For nearly a century, the Monte-Carlo Beach hotel has been welcoming well-heeled guests—including Grace Kelly, Leonardo DiCaprio and Rihanna—to the French Riviera. After two years of renovation, the hotel reopened last year with a chic, minimalist redesign by architect India Mahdavi that pays homage to the 1930s. The reborn Monte-Carlo Beach features three restaurants, a PAOMA spa, and a new emphasis on sustainability.

With its dazzling national parks, globally-renowned wineries, Andean ski resorts and top-class surf beaches, Chile is an attractive destination for travelers from around the world. Deciding you want to visit is the easy part; navigating the logistics of actually making that trip happen can be a tad trickier. Below is a useful guide to Chile’s entry requirements, including information on visa types, costs and all the details you’ll need to ensure a seamless journey in and out of the country.

Whether you’re planning to bask on the beaches, scramble through the jungles, time-travel in historic townships or set up as a digital nomad in hip Hanoi, the chances are you’ll need a visa to visit Vietnam, except for short visits of less than 15 days.