A new proposal under consideration might allow fliers to
leave the airport if their flights are delayed, and return to board them
without any hassles.
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) raised this
issue during a meeting with Bureau of Civil Aviation Security of India (BCAS),
that takes care of security at the airports across the nation.
As of now, passengers can’t leave the airport until they
inform the airline and their name is dropped from the flight manifest. Further,
the fliers need to be escorted by airline officials and handed over to
security.
But soon this ‘tedious’ process will be modified and they
can head out in the city or even go back home if the flight is delayed.
About the current process, Hemendra Singh, an assistant
inspector general of the Central Industrial Security Force said, “We allow
passengers to exit the terminal on directions of the airline. In such cases,
the passenger leaves the airport with his luggage”
If the passenger has completed check-in and wishes to
return, a new boarding pass is issued and airlines takes a call on luggage.
But the new proposal hopes to do away with the new boarding
pass. One way to do that would be an option of leaving through a separate gate.
However, the proposal could take a few months before it is implemented.
The facility will be available for both domestic and international fliers but
not to those whose visa is expiring or those who have single-entry visas.
Scoot, the low-cost arm of the Singapore Airlines Group, has
announced plans to strengthen its presence in India with flights to three new
cities, including Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Visakhapatnam.
Scoot, launched in June 2012 and merged with Tigerair Singapore
in July 2017, retaining the Scoot brand, currently operates on seven routes
between Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, and
Tiruchirappalli in India.
The new routes are due to be transferred over from sister
airline, SilkAir, and Scoot will be the only airline operating direct non-stop
flights from Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam to Singapore.
Flights from Trivandrum to Singapore will commence from 7
May 2019, and flights from Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam will start from 27 October
2019.
The airline has announced a limited-time sale on flights
from all its India points – including Trivandrum, Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam ,starting
from 14th – 28th January 2019 on its website.
One-way promotional fares (inclusive of tax) begin from as
low as Rs4,500 for economy, for trips to 27 cities in Australia, Indonesia,
Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam via Singapore.
Scoot’s network presently encompasses 66 destinations across
18 countries and territories, with 16 more destinations from Laos, India,
China, Malaysia and Indonesia to join the network by the second half of 2020.
Flights to and from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International
Airport will be affected for seven days till January 26 as the airspace will
remain closed for over 1.5 hours every day on account of Republic Day
rehearsals.
Flight movement at Delhi airport will remain restricted from
10:35 AM to 12:15 PM from 18th January to 26th January.
The shutdown, which is proposed by Indian Air Force (IAF)
every year ahead of Republic Day, is likely to hit nearly 800-900 flights
during the time period. Last year, around 1,000 flight movements were hit due
to the closure of airspace.
The final tally of affected flight operations will also
depend on the weather conditions as Delhi witnesses heavy fog during the month
of January.
All airlines are aware of the closure. The airport will try
to accommodate as many rescheduled flights as possible but given the slot
constraints at Delhi airport, a considerable number of flights may eventually
get cancelled
Delhi airport is the busiest aviation hub in the country, in
terms of passenger traffic as well as cargo traffic. The airport has three
terminals, one for domestic and other two for both international and domestic
operations.
The airport handles over 1,200 flights a day and handled
65.7 million passengers in 2018. This figure can cross the mark of 80 million
by 2019-20, a report by centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said.
Airlines are known to charge a hefty amount of money during
festive seasons. For selecting seats of your choice while booking the tickets
you have to pay an extra sum.
Now, you will have to pay a little more money if you need to
get your bags checked-in at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
Delhi International Airport (DIAL), from February 1, will
charge airlines X-ray baggage fees, ranging from Rs 110 to Rs 880 for domestic
and $149.33 to $209.55 for international flights.
With the decision, air passengers flying out from the Delhi
airport would have to shell out up to Rs 50 as airlines are expected to pass on
the X-ray baggage charges to us.
While passenger frisking and hand bag checks are done by the
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, check-in baggage comes
under the supervision of airport operators.
In a four-page order dated January 10, the Airports Economic
Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) said that DIAL can levy X-ray baggage
charges from February 1.
According to an airline official, X-ray baggage charges would be passed on to passengers. He also went on to say that a passenger, who takes a domestic flight, is unlikely to pay more than Rs 5 as ‘X-ray baggage charge’. On an international flight, the per passenger charge would be not more than Rs 50.
A seamless check-in awaits flyers at the Pune Airport with the
authorities ready to roll out biometric boarding system from April 2019.
The system will enhance passenger movement at the airport
through facial recognition under the civil aviation ministry’s “DigiYatra”
programme.
The document of the ministry’s “Vision 2040”, which was unveiled
on Tuesday at the inauguration of the two-day Global Aviation Summit in Mumbai,
states that the pilot implementation of the project will be carried out at Bengaluru
and Hyderabad airports by February-end.
According to an airport official, the project will be rolled
out at the Pune, Kolkata, Varanasi & Vijayawada airports by April.
The system will be similar during the security check. There
will be no need of showing and stamping boarding passes after frisking. The
boarding passes and flight details of the passengers registered in the facial recognition
system would also be integrated.
Here’s how you can register for this :
There will be a one time registration process at
the airport terminal entrance
A centralised registration system will be
created to store passenger information
Each passenger will have a unique “DigiYatra” ID
The flyers facial features will be captured in a
Hight Definition Camera
Once registered, the flyer has to look into the camera
instead of showing their boarding pass, ticket or identity card. The flyers identity
will be ascertained and he/she will be allowed to pass through the security
gate.
India’s second busiest airport, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), will be the 1st airport in
India to implement the concept of “DigiYatra”.
On Monday, CSMIA said that they will soon do away with
physical stamping of boarding passes by security personnel for domestic
passengers.
All domestic full-service carriers ,Air India, Jet Airways
and Vistara ,besides international airlines operate out of T2 of the Mumbai
airport, where this process will start.
(CSMIA), is now equipped with the latest technology that
eliminates boarding pass stamping for all domestic airlines operating out of T2.
Here how this will work:
Passengers travelling within the country from
Terminal 2 can authenticate their boarding pass at the pre-embarkation security
check points.
They can do this by scanning the tickets barcode
or QR code with their mobile phones at the e-gates reader, using Live Passenger
Dataset.
It will save time, provide a “harmonious
experience” to passengers, and improve the overall throughput of the security
check procedure
This authentication will eliminate the responsibility of the
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel to stamp boarding passes.
The move by the Mumbai airport is in line with the
government’s Digi Yatra initiative, which aims to make ticket booking, airport
entry and boarding pass security check-in digital.
Digi Yatra will also enable facial recognition technology
for passengers to enter airports and promote paperless and hassle-free air
travel.
This pilot feature introduced by CSMIA aims at reducing the
time involved in completing the many pre-flight boarding checks.
Global airlines are looking to enter India, lured by the by
a domestic travel boom and what’s expected to be the world’s third-biggest
aviation market by 2025.
Yet India has proven to be a highly competitive market, where
profits are scarce and the life expectancy of weaker airlines is anything but
certain.
The best example of this is the recent fall of Jet Airways. Jet
Airways India Ltd, one of the first carriers to launch after the market opened
up in the early 1990s, is struggling to handle the cost of its day to day
operations and are in dire need of liquid cash.
This is the sign of financial distress in a market which struggles
with high fuel prices, airfare wars and a depreciating rupee. The competition
is set to intensify if Qatar Airways follows through with its proposal to start
a short-haul flights in the country.
To give you a small insight into why this is happing , we
did some digging around and found some interesting points.
Running The Rat Race
The Indian aviation sector is slowly heading towards
reaching a scenario similar to the telecom sector, which faced immense
disruption since the data pricing war started.
At present, airlines regularly offer major discounts and
cashback offers on flights as they want to ‘snatch’ more passengers from the
railways & their competitors to fill up more spots.
Many aviation experts say that the major problem facing the
sector is a “low-cost” airfare war that is driving ticket prices
unrealistically low, even to such an extent that airlines cannot cover their
operating costs.
The woes faced by Jet Airways are similar to those faced by
other Indian carriers that are struggling to remain profitable. This is despite
filling nearly 90 percent of their seats and recording a sharp increase in
domestic passenger numbers over the last four years.
Although the higher demand in the sector reflects as growth,
it does not necessarily add up to profitability in terms of revenue generation.
Experts have termed the growth in the airline sector as “unhealthy” and even
profitless.
The Real Killer
With the entry of budget carriers such as IndiGo and
SpiceJet since the mid-2000’s, full-service carriers like Jet Airways & Air
India that have higher overhead costs, such as in-flight meals and
entertainment, have been forced to offer discounts to passengers looking for a
great bargain.
For instance, in 2015, SpiceJet offered base fares of as low
as Rs 65. Average ticket prices for New Delhi to Mumbai, the world’s
third-busiest route, fell 15 percent to 3,334 rupees in July-August 2014.
“Such fares are “not sustainable,” yet there’s “no choice”
but to keep offering them” Rahul Bhatia, the billionaire co-founder of
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. that operates IndiGo, told analysts after almost all
of its quarterly profits were wiped out.
To Robert Mann, the New York-based head of aviation
consultancy R.W. Mann & Co., the Indian market now resembles that of the
U.S. 30 years ago after the government freed ticket prices from federal
controls in 1978, setting off a fare war.
According to Mt Jagat Puri who’s a pilot by profession, “Ticket
prices on key and popular routes are always under sustained pressure from
various carriers”. He went on to say that, some of the prices are unreasonable
and this leads to an unhealthy fare war.
India’s airlines have particularly suffered because passengers are highly price-sensitive despite spiralling jet-fuel prices and high local taxes that reach as much as 30 percent.
India Flying At A Loss
The Indian government also has had to prop up its
loss-making national carrier Air India, pouring in taxpayer money to keep
planes in the air. In July 2018, the government pumped in €261 Million to keep
Air India operating.
Air India has found itself in dire financial straits over
the past decade, saddled by a gigantic debt amounting to around €7 billion and
having to beg the government for bailouts.
But while the government is looking at infusing fresh
capital in Air India, the private airlines need to fight for themselves in a hostile
market.
What Is The Solution?
With margins slipping, fuel prices not showing any signs of
coming down and little likelihood of the government lowering taxation on jet
fuel, the only option with airlines is to raise fares.
While airlines are now introducing measures to curb
passengers from increasing flight load (recent baggage rule change), much more
needs to be done to make the sector profitable again.
Other than that, industry veterans such as Kapoor feel there
is a need to focus on real growth, which can only be achieved by matching
global costs and not trying to compete with the Indian Railways.
However, it would be extremely hard for airlines to move
away from the low-cost model as passengers may again go back to travelling on
trains. This is where the airline industry lacks the pricing power and is
forced to offer low prices.
Conclusion
There is little that can be done to change the fortunes of
the sector which is facing increased stress due to rising ATF prices and
pressure from depreciating rupee.
Considering that Indian airline carriers pay the highest for
ATF due to local taxes to the tune of 30 per cent, the only intelligent move is
to increase ticket prices and aim at real growth rather than a boost triggered
by discounts.
Flight operations were disrupted at major airports across India
today morning, after heavy fog & smog took over.
Due to smog, flights were disrupted in Bengaluru, Chennai &
Delhi. Airlines have forewarned passengers of likely delays in the coming few
days. On Sunday too, as many as 35 flights were delayed in Bengaluru, 30 in
Chennai.
The departure and arrival delays continued through the day
at the airport and as many as 18 flights arriving at Chennai, some of which
were flying from Kuwait, Sharjah and Delhi, had to be diverted to Bengaluru and
Hyderabad airports.
According to Bengaluru International Airport Limited(BIAL), a
result of the fog, the departure of 35 flights and the arrival of another 16
flights were delayed yesterday. The tech hub’s airport has an average of 300
departures and arrivals each on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, Delhi, which celebrated Lohri on Sunday along
with Punjab, woke up to a misty Monday morning. The minimum temperature in
Delhi was recorded at 6 degrees Celsius. Flight to and from Indira Gandhi
International airports were also delayed.
Today, Tamil Nadu celebrates the Bhogi festival, wherein
bonfires will be lit. Bonfires combined with high humidity, low temperature and
moisture may cause smog, which will disrupt visibility further.
