Indian Airlines

Gurgaon based Inter-Globe, a $ 1.5 billion operating Indigo Airlines is in talks to acquire Mumbai-based Kale Consultants, a computer services business and solutions for the travel industry. The agreement is in due diligence phase, sources said. The acquisition, if successful, will process group business outsourcing (BPO) and IT services unit, Inter Globe Technologies (IGT).

When asked, Vipul Jain, CEO of Kale Consultants, said: These are all rumors and reject this kind of evolution. An email sent to InterGlobe for comment were not returned. InterGlobe addition, a European firm also interested. But the due diligence process has begun for the group InterGlobe. InterGlobe is a technology of aviation and travel and the acquisition of the registrant s perfectly with its strategy of technology. As for Kale, promoters of the company have been looking for a solution, "said a source close to development.

Indians are rapidly becoming tech savvy, especially when it comes to making their travel arrangements. Comparing the current scenario in Online Travel space to what it was in 2009, we can only see things getting better. In a recent survey conducted by comScore, it has been found that there has been a 50% rise in the number of Indians visiting travel sites since last year. This number currently stands at 14 million which is more than one third (37%) of the entire Indian online population. Moreover Indians rank second globally with respect to the average time spent by every individual on a travel site, just behind United Kingdom.

Vijay Mallya’s kingfisher airlines booking is all set to launch international flights from Delhi next month. The kingfisher airlines, which currently operates on seven international routes from Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata, has got government clearance to add as many more routes.

The kingfisher airlines booking announced it will have flights from Delhi to London, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Dubai. The first international flight from Delhi, most possibly to London, could start from March. The other three flights are from Mumbai to Colombo, Bangkok and Dubai.

Yatra.com domestic, India’s leading online travel company has been awarded the second prize in the ‘Domestic Tour Operator’ category of the year 2008-2009 at the National Tourism Awards. This award has been conferred for Yatra.com domestic for its business excellence.

Speaking on being awarded, Dhruv Shringi, Co founder & CEO, Yatra.com, said, “I am extremely grateful and humbled to win an award of this magnitude. This is the reflection of our trustworthy customers who continue to show faith in us and our services, Yatra domestic family is greatly encouraged with this conviction. We shall continue to consistently strive, understand and provide services that the customers don’t only need, but deserve from not just a travel portal but a travel specialist.”

Diminishing market and eroding yields in the domestic sector are making local air carriers, which also operate international flights, to migrate capacity to short-haul overseas destinations like Middle Eastern and Saarc countries.

Lately, all the three Indian international airlines – Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and the state-owned Air India – have been aggressively expanding their services in the neighbouring regions even as they are cutting capacity in the domestic market.

Jet, for instance, has slashed 30% of its domestic capacity till now and plans to snip further 10% during the current year but it is furiously adding flights in the Gulf and South Asian region.

Low cost airlines JetLite and Indigo airlines have proposed to start early morning and late evening direct flights to Mumbai and Delhi, and regular flights to Pune and Hyderabad soon.

TOI has many times highlighted that there are no early morning and late evening flights to Mumbai and Delhi. Frequent flyers too have demanded flights to Mumbai or New Delhi at 6.30am, with the possibility of returning on a late night flight from these destinations, instead of having to spend a night there.

Spicejet booking India investor Istithmar, the private-equity arm of the Government of Dubai, invested USD 12.5 million dollars in SpiceJet in the early 2005 reports CNBC-TV18’s Sonia Shenoy. The street is having some concerns about Istithmar liquidating of this particular stake.

We had spoken to a whole host of analyst who track SpieJet booking very closely and they said that this is purely a sentimental impact. One needs to wait and watch what kind of impact this would have — indeed of course Spice Jet booking India is looking to raise money. So that maybe a bit of a concern going forward. But of course then that concern lies with every company that would have exposure to the UAE. It is too early to predict at this point in time that is what some of the analyst have really told us.

To cash the holiday season and boost passener loads, jetlite and Spicejet low cost airlines on Wednesday announced limited period all-inclusive fares.

Jet Airways too announced low fares for premier full-service class travel, excluding surcharges, taxes and airport fees.

Indian airlines industry had witnessed stiff competition on air fares till 2007 end, with low cost airlines taking the lead in offering low fares and forcing the full- service ones to follow suit. The practice was, however, given up by all airlines once they started feeling the heat of growing losses due to burgeoning fuel costs.

Gurgaon, April 2010: MakeMyTrip, the leader in the Indian online travel space and provider of best-value holidays, has launched Apnaagent.com, a new B2B platform dedicated to strengthening relationships with existing partners. A pioneer in online travel, MakeMytrip is aggressively looking at expanding its B2B channel with the launch of this platform. Apnaagent is a separate entity established with the sole objective of engaging with MakeMyTrip’s valued partners.

Two domestic passenger aircrafts came close to crashing into each other at Mumbai airport after almost getting onto the same landing strip, officers said on Thursday, which is days after an aircraft that crashed in Mangalore killing 158 people.

Officials said a Jet Airways flight was ready to land on an elected airstrip on Wednesday night when one more aircraft rolled in on the landing strip by mistaking it for a taxiway.