Indian Aviation is gearing up for a major expansion with Air India placing a mega 470 aircraft order with Boeing and Airbus and Indigo is preparing for a network expansion from 103 to 115 destinations by next year. Vistara is launching flights between Mumbai and Mauritius from Mar 26 and resuming flights to Colombo from Mar 1. Air India resumes flights between Delhi and Vienna from Feb 20 and has commenced its third non-stop flight between Mumbai and the US with daily flights to JFK airport in New York from Feb 14. These and more news in our Travel Updates newsletter.

Mr Santosh Dhoke, Pune airport director, said, “Random live testing of flyers via DigiYatra is going on at Pune international airport. Let’s say at least five flyers are being tested under the DigiYatra system every day. We are expecting that by March 31, the DigiYatra system will be open for all flyers. As of now, we are observing the flyers on how they are getting used to the system and also how the new security system is functioning,” said Dhoke. “Based on facial recognition technology (FRT), the results of using the DigiYatra app have been good at other airports so we hope that in Pune too, all flyers will soon be able to take advantage of it,” he said. The final decision to make the DigiYatra system open for all will be taken by the civil aviation ministry.

India has lifted the mandatory Covid-19 test requirement for travellers arriving from or transiting via six countries - China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand and Japan from Feb 13 onwards. And also done away with the mandate to upload the 'Air Suvidha' form for such travellers.

However, random Covid-19 testing of 2 per cent of all travellers landing into India will continue, the health ministry has said.

In a historic development, Air India has signed letters of intent with Airbus and Boeing to acquire 400 widebody and 70 single-aisle aircraft. The first of the new aircraft will enter service in late-2023, with the bulk to arrive from mid-2025 onwards. In the interim, Air India has already started taking delivery of 11 leased B777 and 25 A320 aircrafts.

In addition to this firm order of 470 aircraft, Air India has an additional 370 aircraft options and purchase rights over the next decade which takes the order to 870 planes if all the options are exercised by Air India. Air India’s objective is to connect India non-stop to every major city in the world. Besides, the 840 figure factors in the need to phase out AI’s old fleet whose poor interiors have over the years a major pain point for passengers.

The soon-to-be-17’ IndiGo is operating its highest number of daily flights — 1,800 — with a fleet of 308 aircraft and is preparing for a massive network expansion from 102 destinations at the moment to over 115 by next April. A majority of this growth will be international as the low cost carrier (LCC) expects to fly almost 10 crore passengers in fiscal 2024, 2 crore more than this financial year.

Thanks to its last 300-aircraft order placed in 2019 the domestic market leader says it is well placed to cash in on the resounding resurgence in travel being witnessed since last November with a steady supply of planes and is in no hurry to place its next order.

SpiceJet has commenced non-stop flights between Shillong and Delhi from February 24, 2023. Initially, SpiceJet will operate flights from Shillong to the national capital twice in a week on Monday and Friday with a Q-400 aircraft. Meghalaya has tremendous potential for the tourism industry and this new flight service will undeniably provide a major boost to it,” said an official of SpiceJet.

Saudi integrates transit visas with flight tickets

In a first, Saudia, the national flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, has introduced a digital integration system that links transit visas with flight tickets. Introduced in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, the Pilgrims Service Program, and the Saudi Tourism Authority, this first-of-its-kind service titled “Your Ticket Your Visa”, is aimed at providing guests with even easier access to the Kingdom. The service covers all international airports in the Kingdom and allows the guests to stay in the Kingdom for up to 96 hours. During this period, the guests can travel around the Kingdom and perform Umrah, informed Saudia.

Vistara launching flights between Mumbai and Mauritius on March 26, 2023:

Vistara has announced the launch of its flight services from Mumbai to Mauritius starting from March 26. These flights will run five times a week and will be catered with a long range A321 aircraft, which the airline inducted in its fleet recently, in a three class configuration of business, premium economy and economy. Mauritius is the 12th international destination that Vistara is connecting with Mumbai.

Apart from this, the airline had also earlier in January announced that it would start daily direct flights between Mumbai and Dammam from March 1 and resume daily operations between Mumbai and Colombo from March 1 after a hiatus of nearly three years.

Air India resumes flights between Delhi and Vienna:

On February 20. Air India resumed non-stop operations between Delhi (DEL) and Vienna (DEL). The carrier’s last connection in the Austrian capital was in March 2020. The route will be operated by Boeing 787-8 aircraft with a capacity of 256 passengers in two classes (18 Business Class/238 Economy) with the following schedule:

This non-stop service allows travellers from India to have access to other popular destinations around Vienna, such as Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France. In addition, this route aims to cater to the VFR (Friends and/or Family Visiting) market between Austria and India and provide European customers with convenient connections to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Australia.

Air India’s European network offers flights to Birmingham (BHX), Paris (CDG), Copenhagen (CPH), Frankfurt (FRA), London – Heathrow (LHR), Milan – Malpensa (MXP). Vienna (VIE) and from March 1 resumes non-stop services to Copenhagen (CPH). The carrier will have an offering of 17,920 seats per week between India and Europe on 70 operations.

Expanding its global reach, Air India has announced the resumption of its non-stop service between Mumbai and JFK airport in New York from Feb 14. This new flight is the third non-stop Air India service between Mumbai and USA, the other two being direct flights between Mumbai to Newark (EWR) and San Francisco (SFO). The Mumbai JFK flight will operate daily with the newly inducted Boeing 777-200LR aircraft with the flight departing Mumbai at 0055 hrs and arrives in New York at 0655 hrs (local time) on the same day. The return flight will depart New York at 10.55 hrs local time and arrive into Mumbai at 11.35 hrs + 1 day

International travel costs are soaring and travellers are facing a challenge sticking to their budgets for the coming summer vacations, travel companies have said. Many airlines are charging a lot more for flights to popular foreign destinations in the summer than in previous years, with airfares to Europe and USA seeing a particularly significant increase. Nikhil Thakurdas, CEO of Odyssey Tours and Travels, surmised that airfares to international destinations are currently 60-100% higher than pre-Covid times. "This could also be due to less seats on popular routes amid unrestored flight frequencies. Other aspects include higher jet fuel prices and longer flying routes due to closure of airspace over Russia amid the war with Ukraine. There is enough demand from travellers, so airlines feel no need to reduce prices