Kingfisher Airlines to offer fan packages to IPL 2

The DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) has announced that Kingfisher Airlines has renewed its deal to be the Official Airline and Travel Partner for the league in the second season.

As the official airline and travel partner to the DLF Indian Premier League, Kingfisher Airlines will extend its hospitality to not only all the teams and players of the DLF Indian Premier League but will also offer IPL fans in India the unique opportunity to travel to South Africa to root for their favourite teams participating in Season 2009 in South Africa.

Kingfisher Airlines is working in close consultation with the South African Tourism and three of the largest tour operators to offer cricket fans a unique once in a life time fare to experience cricket in the Rainbow Nation, an official release said. The airline is also working closely with IPL to ensure that all teams and support management get to "travel in style and convenience" between India and South Africa.

Kingfisher packages to South Africa will look to offer fans an end-to-end experience with airline tickets, match tickets, hotels and on-ground arrangements all built into one exciting package at an unbeatable price, the company said.

Taking things a step further, Kingfisher will also offer customised tours based on each team’s fan base and will facilitate special flights within India to ensure that fans of all the franchises can connect to convenient flights between India and South Africa.

In addition to that fans can also savour the treasures of the Rainbow Nation with local sight-seeing tours conducted by expert tour operators and local guides to enhance their South African experience. Attractively priced IPL match tickets will ensure that fans from all across can fly and support their teams.

IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi says, "I am very pleased to have the country’s premier 5 star airline Kingfisher Airlines join us as our Official Airline and Travel Partner. I am certain that the IPL fans travelling to South Africa for Season 2009 will enjoy the 5 star hospitality of the airline while flying the good times to the Rainbow Nation.

"Kingfisher’s decision to extend the association with the DLF IPL further bears testimony to the fact that there is a huge global fan following for the league and I am certain now that a lot of Indians will partake of this unique offer from Kingfisher Airlines to make the trip over to South Africa to enjoy an action packed Season 2009.”

Kingfisher Airlines chairman and CEO Dr. Vijay Mallya said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with the DLF Indian Premier League as the official airline and travel partner for Season 2009. Fans can expect to fly the good times in the Rainbow Nation as they follow the fortunes of their favourite IPL teams in South Africa.

"This extension of our agreement with the DLF Indian Premier League is further testimony of our commitment to Indian sports. I am certain that all the fans, players and officials of the DLF IPL will undoubtedly enjoy our hospitality and fly the good times during the thirty – six days of intense competition. I welcome all DLF IPL fans to sit back, relax and enjoy the Kingfisher experience.”

The DLF Indian Premier League is set to kick-off in Cape Town with a double-header weekend, which will see all eight teams pitted against each other. The double header on 18 April will see the winner of the inaugural season the Rajasthan Royals face-off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, while the Mumbai Indians will do battle against the Chennai Super Kings. On 19 April the Deccan Chargers will face the Kolkata Knight Riders and the second game will see the Delhi Dare Devils take on Kings XI Punjab.

Source:indiantelevision.com

A-I daily direct flight to Chicago from March 29

Air-India is launching direct daily flights from Hyderabad to Chicago (US) via Frankfurt from March 29.

The national carrier also plans to introduce non-stop flights from Hyderabad to Frankfurt.

Passengers flying from Hyderabad will now have an option to travel via Mumbai to Chicago and via Delhi to New York for the same fare. Besides from Hyderabad, Air India also launched direct flights to Chicago from Bangalore and Chennai.

``Frankfurt has a distinctive advantage of providing easy connectivity to many cities. For us, it is a hub more strategic than London.

We are expecting at least 10 per cent increase in traffic due to this restructuring,’’ said P Ashok Kumar, deputy general manager (commercial), Air India.

To make introduction of nonstop flights from Hyderabad to Frankfurt possible, the occupany levels of each flight taking off from Hyderabad to Chicago and London via Mumbai and Delhi have to touch 150 to 200 passengers.

“Introduction of direct flights reduces transit time and costs significantly. When volumes increase, we will launch non-stop flights and fares will be much lower compared to the present,’’ explained.

In spite of the prevalent recession, Air-India, which has a fleet strength of about 150 aircrft, has inducting new aircraft into its fleet at an average of two to three a month since July 2007.

To face competition from private carriers, the airline is expanding its network to cover new destinations within the country and also abroad.

Source:http://www.expressbuzz.com

Economy slows, airlines leave, yet international passenger traffic jumps

Mumbai airport has bucked an international trend - a sharp drop in passenger movements.

Latest figures released by the Airports Council International (ACI), the Geneva-based association of world airports, report a fall of 6.7 per cent and 5.9 per cent in worldwide international and domestic passenger traffic from January to December 2008.

By contrast, in Mumbai airport, international passenger movement has actually registered a rise of 3.6 per cent between April 2008 and January 2009. In terms of domestic passenger traffic, however, Mumbai airport has followed the global trend: it has seen a decline of 8.5 per cent between April and January.

The rise in international traffic has come in spite of the Mumbai airport seeing two major airlines and a new one withdraw from the summer schedule.

Richard Branson-promoted Virgin Atlantic will withdraw its Mumbai-London flight from May 4, while Finnish airline Finnair will withdraw flights to Mumbai temporarily between May and mid-October.

“Though it won’t make a lot of difference to the overall airport traffic figures, symbolically it has a lot of significance,” admitted an airport official.

Another carrier, little-known Dubai-based Sama Airlines, has withdrawn its flights from Mumbai since March 1, according to an airport official. The reasons cited by all airlines circle around a sharp fall in load coupled with the ongoing slowdown.

“We have decided to temporarily suspend operations to Mumbai with effect from May 4. We are suspending this service until rational conditions re-emerge,” said Neha Lidder Ganju, senior marketing manager (India), Virgin Atlantic Airways.

However according to a Mumbai airport source, the real reason lay in competition cutting into the airlines’ pie. “There are four flights taking off for London within a span of one hour. So the competition out there is immense,” he said.

Though there has been an overall increase in international passenger movements, for the month of January alone the figures are down by 2.75 per cent compared to those for last January. As for domestic passenger traffic this January, the drop is 13.5% compared to that in last January.

“Though some airlines have withdrawn, there are other sectors that are actually doing very well,” said an airport official. “In fact Emirates is thinking of adding another flight from Mumbai to Dubai,” he said.

It was earlier reported by Newsline that Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) expects a drop of about 15% in overall passenger movements for 2008-09. In 2007-08, the airport handled 25.8 million passengers, this year MIAL expects the figure to be in the 22-million range.

Source:expressindia.com

Mixed response given to new direct flight

The new direct flight from Kanpur to Delhi and from Delhi to Kanpur has generated mixed response from the Kanpurites.

The business class termed this development as fruitful and said business in Kanpur will also take-off and MNCs and big private firms who earlier used to skip Kanpur from their calendars in absence of direct flights will start coming to city.

Umang Agrawal, a businessman said, "apart from the obvious benefits that time will be saved, lot of important Delhi based firms will start coming to the city. Earlier, we used to be summoned there as we had to go to Delhi in absence of no other choice."

But for many time schedule will take away the benefits. Anil Shukla Warsi, the MP from Akbarpur who frequent Delhi almost on a daily basis said, "unless and until the flight times get scheduled in the morning it's no use planning the flight."

Same was the response of many others users who regularly to and fro between Kanpur and Delhi. Even flight operators admit that. Prashant Shukla, personal secretary to station manager said, "we also want that flight times get beneficial for professional purposes so that people can be in Delhi by 10 in morning, get their chores done and return back to Kanpur by evening."

The flight No. 7802 which will operate from Kanpur to Delhi and flight No. 7801 from Delhi to Kanpur will be operational from Monday onwards. The minimum fare on this route for 48 seater Air India flight is Rs 4075 for economy class and Rs 8210 is maximum charge.

Source:indiatimes.com