Singapore Airlines will start flying Airbus A380 to London from March 18, 2008, making it the first commercial flight to Europe.
Singapore Airlines is the first airline to fly A380 and London will be the second destination of A380 after the launch of A380 to Sydney in October 2007.
Singapore Airlines A380 seats 471 passengers in three classes – 12 in ultra luxurious Singapore Airlines suites, 60 in award winning business class and 399 in Economy class. On board the inaugural A380 flight to London (SQ308/SQ319) on 18 March, customers will receive personalized certificates recognizing their participation in the milestone event, as well as limited edition Singapore Airlines A380 souvenirs and exclusive premium giveaways.
SQ308 will leave Singapore Changi Airport at 0900 Hrs and arriving London Heathrow at 1505 Hrs on March 18. The aircraft will return same day as SQ 319, departing Heathrow at 1855 hrs, reaching Singapore at 1535 Hrs on March 19 (All times local).
Seats on A380 are open for sale, grab one now before it’s too late…
Waiting for Kingfisher Airline to start operating A380 from India
Singapore to London on Airbus A380
Uttarakhand on Air Map
The Uttarakhand govt. has completed the up-gradation work at the Jolly Grant Airport near Dehradun and Pant Nagar Airport. The Ministry of civil aviation has said that the services to these airports are scheduled to start at the end of Feb 2008. The Tourism ministry of state is talking to all airlines to start operations to these airports and has got responses from Indian, Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines.
While Deccan will initially start with a frequency of two flights a week, the other two airlines are yet to decide on their flight frequency. Now both the airports have the capacity to handle the landing of Airbus 320 and Boeing 787. The jolly Grant Airport will cater to Garhwal Region and Pant Nagar Airport for Kumaon Region.
Besides this, State Govt. is also planning to start Helicopter service and is in talks with several players for the same.
No doubt passengers will have more option to travel to this region, but high taxes charged by airlines will have negative impact on the occupancy level for flights to these sectors. Dehradun and Kumaon region are well connected with rail transport which will give tough fight to airlines.
British Airways Flight Crash Landed
British Airways flight arriving from China crashed on landing at Heathrow Airport, injuring 19 people and forcing the cancellation of more than 200 flights. British Airways CEO praised the crew and pilot for getting 136 passengers off the plane safely.
The Air Accidents Investigation branch has begun a probe and will issue an initial report by tomorrow. The cause of the crash includes a mechanical or electrical failure, pilot error and a loss of power resulting from birds being sucked into the engines.
London’s Heathrow Airport is returning to normal. Of 1300 takeoffs and landings scheduled for today, 53 or 4% had been cancelled as of 9.am. Heathrow’s south runway will remain closed until tomorrow as workers make repairs and replace smashed landing lights.
Hats off to the 16 member crew of the airline, who have done a fantastic job evacuating the plane on time.
We are Hiring
It's been busy days and 2008 has been great for us at TravelVidya. We are soon to going to launch and need peope to help us launch in a style.
We have started hiring trainers for our training vertical in travel and need your support for the same. Please see the job post on our website under current opening section and recommend people for the same.
We need enthusiastic people who have the capacity to build a great organization and a zeal to success.
Looking forward for your support!
Rajat
India Travel – Small is Big
FCM Travel Solutions, the largest travel expense Management Company has launched Flight Shop in Gurgaon. The company is looking at to expand into the country’s leisure travel sector under the Flight Shop banner.
“Visitors to Flight Shop could expect excellent holiday bargains, with the expert consultants arranging everything from airfares, accommodation and package holidays to car hire and visas. The Flight Shop’s expert service will be backed by a value proposition of ‘Our Perfect Holiday Promise - enjoy the holiday you paid for or we’ll give you a Rs. 1500 voucher’”.
In Nov, Yatra announced the opening of 100 lounge offices which will have facilities such as self-booking kiosks, across the country by next year to sell its high end tour packages. They have recently opened its first lounge office in Gurgaon and plans to set up another eight by March this year.
On the other hand, India’s largest online travel company MakeMyTrip has presence in over 15 cities in India and is expanding very rapidly to increase their retail presence.
With more travel companies increasing their offline presence, customers will get benefits of discounted deals for their holidays.
Let’s travel!
Two in One, Two Important News in one email.
Change in Baggage Travel Policy in London
Passengers while using airports in London should double check on the new rules of the cabin baggage. British Airways said passengers flying through and out of Heathrow will be able to take two pieces of free hand baggage on board from Monday, Jan 07 but the one bag limit is still there at Gatwick airport. Travel consultants; please guide your passengers accordingly.
Indian Railways New Year Gift to Travel Agents
Indian Railways New Year gift is the decision of granting APIs to OTAs and other traditional travel agents by mid 2008. With this, the OTA and the travel agent community with online portals will be able to sell inventory of airlines and railways through a single interface. It will surely add some additional revenues for travel agent community and on the other hand consumers will be able to book a package with train and hotel combine from a single window.
Commissions withdrawn in Malaysia by Malaysian Airlines
The airline stated that its airfares through all distribution channels in Malaysia remain the same. It added that customers will also continue to enjoy greater price transparency as the airfare, fuel surcharge, taxes and other surcharges will be printed on their tickets. Agency commission is still payable for Malaysia Airlines tickets issued on full-published IATA international and domestic fares.
With this new development, travel agents in Malaysia need to collect service fees to sustain viable business operations. MATTA members now have a menu of service fees based on the market conditions applicable for various types of services not normally provided by the airlines, like extending credit facilities, visa processing and travel document deliveries.
Service fees by travel agents who provide more travel related services to customers will naturally differ from those who provide lesser services. The final purchase price payable by customers will depend on actual level of services rendered by agents.
This is the best move by Malaysian Airlines and certainly this will bring in more transparency in the working of an agent who should get paid based on his services. This should be followed by all airlines in India.
What Say you?
Kingfisher Airlines Signs UATP agreement
Kingfisher Airlines is the latest airline to sign the UATP agreement.
"Kingfisher's success is based on offering the best service and experience possible," said Dr. Vijay Mallya, chairman and CEO, Kingfisher Airlines Limited. "We are actively expanding our corporate client base and accepting UATP is a natural course of action to offer the corporate clients their preferred form of payment to gain market share."
Kingfisher is quickly becoming a major player in the industry and has smartly positioned itself by accepting UATP to grow its corporate market share," President and CEO, UATP, Ralph Kaiser stated. "The Indian market is one of the fastest growing arenas and Kingfisher is positioned to garner a large percentage of the corporate market share; UATP corporate clients will be able to profit through the Kingfisher - UATP relationship."
Kingfisher Airlines, recently awarded the Skytrax Excellence Award, and voted the "Best New Airline of the Year" within months of its launch offers unique opportunities for flyers. It is the only airline to offer premium first class service on domestic routes and offer special programs for its corporate flyers including dedicated relationship managers that offer solutions for corporate client needs.
Way to go!
Deccan available on Abacus
Abacus International, a leading GDS in Asia Pacific region announced the first GDS partnership with India’s largest and first LCC, Simplifly Deccan (Air Deccan). The passengers will be able to book their travel on Deccan through Abacus-connected travel agents.
Mr Ramki Sundaram , officiating CEO , Deccan, said the adoption of the GDS model also allows the airline to significantly expand and distribute their capabilities while keeping costs associated with it low. “The Deccan – Abacus tie up marks the first GDS adoption by an airline in the India’s LCC market space. Distribution channels are overarching to our growth strategy. We have consistently focused on exploring innovative and effective distribution channels.”
Abacus is a leading GDS for air content in India. It was the first GDS to distribute fares for the state-owned Indian Airlines and premium carrier Kingfisher Airlines.
At present Deccan operates 350 flights a day to 63 destinations across India. Last year alone the airline carried over 7 million passengers.
Deccan joins the likes of low cost carriers such as Air Asia and Jetstar Asia, in distributing fares to Abacus’ 15,000 travel agency locations in 24 markets throughout the region.
