Swiss Air to add First Class on its flights to Zurich from Mumbai/Delhi

Swiss Air will introduce a first class section on its flights on its Mumbai-Zurich route beginning September and its new Delhi-Zurich route in October, the company said. The new section is in addition to its business and economy classes.Holger Hatty, member of board and chief commercial officer of Swiss Air said that his airline will introduce a new wide body Airbus A330-300 type plane with eight first class seats, 45 business class seats and 183 economy class seats on India routes, starting 2nd September from Mumbai and 13th October from Delhi.

Jet Airways Konnect launches new domestic flights

Effective September 3, 2009 onwards, Jet Airways Konnect, Jet Airways’ all-economy no-frills service, will launch services on several key domestic routes previously operated by Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, aboard state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft. With the launch of these new services, Jet Airways Konnect will further enhance domestic connectivity across its network to/from the major metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata to several smaller cities across India. Effective September 3, 2009 Jet Airways Konnect will launch/enhance services on the Kolkata-Delhi/Bagdogra/Guwahati-Kolkata sectors; followed by the introduction of new services on the Delhi-Pune/Guwahati-Delhi and Delhi-Chennai sectors, effective September 15, 2009.

Effective September 16, 2009, Jet Airways Konnect will launch/enhance services on the Chennai-Delhi, Delhi-Guwahati-Bagdodgra-Delhi, Delhi-Bagdodgra-Guwahati-Delhi, Delhi-Bengaluru, Bengaluru-Mumbai and Mumbai-Delhi sectors; and on the Mumbai-Aurangabad/Chandigarh/Kolkata-Mumbai sectors, effective September 17, 2009. Effective September 18, 2009, Jet Airways Konnect will launch/enhance services on the Delhi-Hyderabad/Mumbai-Delhi sectors; followed by the commencement of new services on the Delhi-Chennai/Kolkata-Delhi, Mumbai-Udaipur-Jaipur-Delhi and Delhi-Jaipur-Udaipur-Delhi sectors, effective October 1, 2009.

According to Mr. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, "Jet Airways Konnect, with its low-fare, high quality services, has proven to be very popular with travellers across India. With strong demand for Konnect services on these domestic routes, we are confident that the new flights will be well-appreciated." With the launch of these new services, as of October 1, 2009, Jet Airways Konnect service will operate over 180 daily flights across India.

Air India to fly all economy flights to West Asia

Air India, the flag carrier operated by National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, will replace several of its West Asian flights that offer business class travel with all-economy flights of its discount carrier in an attempt to reduce costs and increase revenue. Business class travel has been declining globally amid an economic slowdown, according to numbers released by the International Air Transport Association. Global travel on premium tickets declined 23.8% in May from a year earlier, economy travel was down 7.6% in the same month. "There is hardly any business class required in West Asia," said an Air India official.

The carrier’s low-cost affiliate, Air India Express, operates 186 flights a week between India and West Asia and South East Asia. The airline will increase its services to West Asia to make up for the flights Air India plans to pull, said a government official. Air India has committed to undertake an overhaul of its business operations, restructure its massive Rs.15,241 crore debt, raise funds through a public offering in fiscal 2011 and convert three out of four of its flights into low-fare services.

Indian Navy Sea Harrier fighter jet crashes off Goa

An Indian Navy Sea Harrier fighter jet crashed off the Goa coast on Friday and the pilot is feared to have been killed, an official said. The plane was on an exercise with a naval ship, the official said, adding that efforts were on to locate the jet.