IHG to manage Blue city's Al Madina hotel

Oman based Blue City Company has signed an agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group for the latter to manage its beachfront property, InterContinental Al Madina A'Zarqa. The hotel will consist of 200 rooms, including 50 suites. It will also provide meeting and conference facilities, fitness centres and spa.

Saudia suffers tyre burst in Mumbai

A Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah with 199 passengers onboard suffered a tyre-burst at the Mumbai airport this evening. Passengers on the flight SV 744 were disembarked on taxiway N-8 as the aircraft could not be towed due to the heavy load, a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson said. The runway is, however, fully operational, he said. The return flight to Jeddah had 211 passengers. However, the departure had been cancelled, he said. Consequently, two flights, Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong and Kingfisher Airlines from Thiruvananthapuram had to make a go-around for several minutes before landing.

SpiceJet, Jet Airways offer special monsoon fares

In a bid to attract passengers during monsoon season, low cost carriers - SpiceJet, Jetlite, Jet Airways Konnect and full service airlines Jet Airways have come up with special fares for the fliers. SpiceJet has introduced special fares starting from Rs 1,500 plus taxes for those wanting to fly to 18 destinations on its network between July 15 to September 15. The bookings for this limited seat offer are open from today for limited period, a statement from the airlines said. Meanwhile, Jet Airways and its low cost arms, Jetlite and Jet Konnect have also launched the special Monsoon Magic prices for its passengers.

Air India launches new 'Quick Returns' scheme

National air-carrier, Air India on Saturday launched a multi-user four coupon ticket called 'Quick Returns' for economy travel within the country. The offer is part of Air India's ongoing marketing initiatives targeting the corporate sector to enhance its market share, a company press release said. The coupon has been priced at Rs 22,916, inclusive of all taxes and the tickets under the offer are non-refundable, the release said. Passengers buying tickets under the scheme would have to pay user development fee, which is charged by airport operators, the release said.

The tickets are available for sale from June 5th to July 11th and the travel is to be completed by September 20, 2009. Quick Returns booklets will be valid for use on both IC (Indian) and AI (Air India) coded flights on all domestic sectors except on four routes; Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi-Kochi,Delhi-Kozhikode and Delhi-Coimbatore, the release said. Members of the Frequent Flyer Programme will earn 100 mileage points for each sector of travel under the scheme. Corporate houses, which have entered into deals with Air India,are also eligible to purchase the tickets offered under the scheme, Air India said.

Air India Express to cancel some Gulf routes

The financial crunch at Air India is taking a toll on its subsidiary Air India Express which has now decided to pull out a few international flights and deploy them on domestic routes in the country. Air India Express will pull out flights from routes in the Gulf and South-East Asia among which are Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The redeployment of these international flights will be in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. This process will take place around September this year with Air India Express functioning as a low-cost service. A senior Air India official confirmed that the company is already working on a low-cost model. “We noticed that travellers, especially corporates, have switched over to low-cost airlines from full service carriers on many domestic sectors,” he added.

Air India told to start low-cost service

Budget flyers could soon be spoilt for choice. Cash-strapped Air India has been asked to start low-cost domestic operations as part of its overall restructuring and survival strategy. Reeling under loan liabilities of Rs 15,000 crore, the airline has also been told to restructure loans with banks and other lenders. And to cut costs 46 of its current fleet of 155 aircraft are being returned at the earliest. The man in the eye of the AI storm, aviation minister Praful Patel, on Friday said a plan is being worked out for AI revival that has just one important condition - employees' wholehearted support to turn the airline around.

"Despite all problems, we'll turn around AI. That's a challenge we accept," said Patel. "AI must enter the domestic low cost segment. That's where the growth is and is something that Jet and Kingfisher have already done. It's upto the airline whether to use AI Express for that purpose or have something else. But the business model has to be redefined," he said. Government sources said the decision to delay payment of June wages was just to send a signal to employees that it's not business as usual at AI.

The loss-ridden airline is now going to see a serious attempt to downsize its workforce for which a leave-without-pay scheme has already been launched and VRS could soon follow along with a leaner fleet size. To begin with, 46 leased aircraft are being returned. Facing flak from unions over decisions like AI-IA merger and acquisition of new aircraft, a senior ministry official said, “AI-IA had not got planes for about two decades and desperately needed new machines. Each employee must also feel why despite getting new planes, the airline is not able to attract passengers?”

Jet Airways Konnect introduces new flights

Jet Airways Konnect will extend its services on board two additional state-of-the-art, next generation Boeing 737 aircraft, to include sectors connecting Mumbai with Rajkot and Bengaluru with daily flights, commencing July 7th, 2009. Again, effective July 11th, 2009, Jet Airways Konnect will offer similar services from Delhi to Indore and Bhopal, as also between Mumbai and Delhi and, Indore and Bhopal, with daily flights. These 2 additional 135-seater aircraft have been specially configured to offer Jet Airways Konnect’s popular all–economy no frills service. The deployment of these two Boeing 737-700 aircraft will take the tally of aircraft offering the Jet Airways Konnect services, upto 19 aircraft (9 Boeing 737s and 10 ATRs), offering over 125 flights daily as planned. Jet Airways Konnect flights aim to provide the same operational efficiency and reliability, that Jet Airways is reputed for, thereby offering true value to its guests.