Friday, March 23, 2018

Singapore Airlines eyes Tel Aviv flights over Saudi Arabia: Israel tourism minister


Photo: By Kentaro Iemoto from Tokyo, Japan - Singapore Airlines A330-300X(9V-STE), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23458753

JERUSALEM, March 22 (Reuters) - Israel's tourism minister said on Thursday that Singapore Airlines and a Filipino airline were exploring the introduction of flights to and from Tel Aviv that would pass through Saudi airspace.

The minister, Yariv Levin, spoke after Air India launched its first flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv on a route scheduled to take the plane over Saudi Arabia, a country that does not recognise Israel.

Granting overflight rights to Air India ended a 70-year blanket Saudi airspace ban on routes to and from Israel, but did not appear to herald any immediate change in policy towards Israeli airlines.

Read more at https://www.nasdaq.com/article/israel-says-singapore-airlines-eyes-tel-aviv-flights-over-saudi-20180322-00958



Thursday, March 22, 2018

Air India scripts history with golden letters, launches maiden non-stop flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv over Saudi Arabia



#AirIndia launched non-stop flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv  at 6 pm today. Flight AI139 took off from Indira Gandhi Intl Airport at 1800 hrs & will arrive at the Ben Gurion International Airport at Tel Aviv at 2145 hrs. Flt AI139 was flagged off by Shri Pradeep Singh Kharola, CMD Air India.

The 256-seater Boeing 787 Dreamliner to overfly Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf states, countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.

The maiden flight departed New Delhi at 6 pm and is due to arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport at 9.45 pm Israel time, according to the Air India website. 


#AirIndia said it plans to fly the Delhi-Tel Aviv route three times a week.


Image Credit: Air India



Tuesday, March 20, 2018

'P&W to deliver two engines to Indigo on Wednesday, remaining within next 40 days'



NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Pratt & Whitney will soon begin deliveries of spare engines to IndiGo airlines, which was forced to ground eight of its Airbus A320neo aircraft last week after engine problems, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

P&W, owned by United Technologies Corp, will deliver two engines on Wednesday and the remaining within the next 40 days, said the source who did not want to identified.

A series of in-flight engine failures prompted India’s aviation regulator to ground 11 aircraft last week fitted with certain P&W engines and operated by IndiGo, the country’s biggest carrier by market share, and rival GoAir.

That led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and about a 5 percent fall in the share price of IndiGo’s parent, InterGlobe Aviation, over the past week.


Read more at: https://in.reuters.com/article/india-indigo-prattandwhitney/pw-to-deliver-spare-a320neo-engines-soon-to-indigo-source-idINKBN1GW1MQ     Image: By BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada - IndiGo Airbus A320neo F-WWDG (to VT-ITI), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51240604




Vistara records 91% Passenger Load Factor in February 2018


New Delhi, March 19, 2018: Vistara recorded its highest-ever passenger load factor (PLF or occupancy) of 91.2% in the month of February 2018 (as per the DGCA monthly report), after having topped the list among full-service carriers (FSCs) several times over the last one year. The performance is phenomenal for a carrier with three cabin classes, with more than 95% occupancy in its Economy class during the month, which is amongst the highest in the world. Vistara also registered the highest on-time performance of 73.8% in the month among FSCs.

Additionally, Vistara registered only 0.1 complaints per 10,000 per 10,000 passengers, the lowest of all major Indian airlines. The airline’s cancellation rate also constantly remained to be one of the lowest in the industry at 0.15%.

Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, said, “We are gratified by our performance in February 2018. We have hit the sweet spot of high loads with close to zero denied boardings, a difficult and creditable achievement indeed, while maintaining our record of having some of the lowest cancellation and customer complaint rates in the industry globally''. 




Monday, March 19, 2018

Air India to begin service to Tel Aviv from Thursday



The disinvestment-bound national carrier Air India will deploy a 256-seater Boeing 787-800 on the New Delhi-Tel Aviv route that will be launched from Thursday.

Air India had on March 7 announced a tri-weekly flights to Tel Aviv from March 22, after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that Saudi Arabia had allowed India to fly over its territory.

It will deploy a 256-seater Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on the new route, the airline said today.

Air India will fly over Oman, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to reach Israel, taking seven hours to the destination, making it the fastest air route between the two countries.

The duration of the flight between New Delhi and Tel Aviv will be around two hours shorter than the time taken by Israel's national carrier El Al, which has direct flights between Tel Aviv and Mumbai, Air India said in the statement.
The national carrier had planned to launch the service last May, but that did not happen after some countries denied use of their airspace for flights to Israel.



Image: By Julian Herzog, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26856008
Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/air-india-to-begin-service-to-tel-aviv-from-thursday/articleshow/63367001.cms



Singapore: Changi Airport to penalise airlines that don't watch the clock


Habitual latecomers and early birds face fines of up to $100k and risk losing landing slots

Travellers at Changi Airport can expect fewer delays even as the skies become more crowded, with penalties to be rolled out in the coming months for the first time to punish airlines that do not watch the clock.

The Straits Times has learnt that not only habitual latecomers, but also early birds who too end up disrupting schedules will face a fine of up to $100,000 and risk losing their landing slots.

Singapore aviation authorities are taking a tough stance on the matter amid a growing number of flights that continue to put pressure on runway capacity at Changi Airport.

The Aviation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which spells out the new rules, is expected to be passed in Parliament today. It is "to allow for optimal use of airport capacity", according to the document.

Only airlines that flout the rules "repeatedly or intentionally" will be taken to task, the Government said when proposing the Bill.

The operational details are expected to be made known to airlines soon.


Read more at: https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/changi-airport-penalise-airlines-dont-watch-clock-5794816.html

Image credit: Pulkitsangal, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16156776

IndiGo aircraft grounded in Jammu due to fuel leak


NEW DELHI: Another IndiGo’s Airbus 320 (new engine option or neo) was grounded in Jammu on Sunday due to a technical glitch, making it the sixth incident with the neo aircraft in a week. 

Sources said that the IndiGo’s aircraft (VT IVE) is grounded in Jammu since yesterday. 

“The aircraft was to operate flight 6e 559 to Srinagar from Jammu but was grounded due to fuel leak from engine 1 after which the plane was grounded,” said a source, in the know. 


IndiGo in a statement confirmed the incident and said: “An A320 neo aircraft that operated Mumbai-Jammu, during maintenance checks was detected with leakage from #1 engine. This is a technical snag and it is being rectified. This is not related to the PW engine on-going concerns,” read the statement. 



ANI reported

Vistara invites applications for Sr. Executive Taxation (Intl. Compliance)

Sr. Executive Taxation (Intl. Compliance) Gurgaon    Qualification: CA or B. COM graduate or MBA Finance from a recognized university ...