Vistara to discontinue its Bangalore-Calcutta-Guwahati route from June 16

Vistara, owned by the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, have decided to discontinue its Bangalore-Calcutta-Guwahati route from June 16 because of lack of patronage of business class traffic between the eastern cities and one of the most popular destinations in the country. Analysts point out that the discontinuation was a telling sign of the lack of corporate traffic from and to Calcutta.
This is reported in telegraphindia.com dated 31 May 2017.

Incidentally, the lack of demand for premium seats has been one of several reasons that international airlines had dropped Calcutta from their radar. However, low-cost airlines have not lost heart. This is because they operate all-economy class flights that depend to a great extent on students and patients on their way to educational institutions and healthcare facilities in the south. Techies do travel in and out of the city but this type of traffic is usually confined to weekends and the holiday seasons.
Vistara had started operations from Calcutta a year ago in June 2016 and the Bangalore services later last year - it operates two flights on the Bangalore-Calcutta-Guwahati route on a daily basis.


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Demonetization has brought with it a problem for low cost airlines - it is the fear of card fraud as they switch over to go cashless for on-board sales. The problem is that card fraudsters could 'buy' eatables and drinks mid-air by swiping stolen cards. However, whether the transaction has been approved or not will be known only when the plane lands and the swipe machine is connected online to its bank.
By the time the airline realizes that a card swipe has been declined, the passengers would have alighted from the plane and gone away.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 8 December 2016.

The problem would be less when landing in big cities or metros is involved like like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai because the swipe machine will get connected quickly and it will be possible to detect any declined transaction in time. However, in smaller towns where connectivity is an issue, this will prove to be a challenge.
Once the fraud is detected, the airlines will have to follow a tedious legal procedure and such a long-drawn procedure may not be worth it for a declined transaction of small amounts like Rs 200.


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SpiceJet to operate direct flights from Kolkata to Sharjah and Bangladesh

SpiceJet, one of the lowxost airlines, is planning for flights to Sharjah and Dubai from Calcutta apart from daily flights to Bangladesh from December. This has been disclosed by the managing director of the low-cost airline. He has announced the plans in Nabanna in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 20 September 2016.

He has indicated that direct flights to Sharjah, Dubai and Yangon will start from Calcutta but the dates are yet to be finalized. However, the flights to Dhaka (two) and Chittagong (one) will be a daily affair. SpiceJet also has plans to operate hopping flights to the two UAE destinations. At present, the airline uses Boeing 737-800 series aircraft which can fly four hours at a stretch. Since Dubai and Sharjah will take over five hours from Calcutta, a stopover would be necessary. But passengers wold not have to change aircraft.
At Nabanna, the SpiceJet MD also announced the launching of domestic flights to Silchar, Aizawl, Visakhapatnam and Gorakhpur from October 4. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee requested SpiceJet to consider a direct flight to Europe.


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IndiGo woos fliers - offers air tickets starting from Rs 900

IndiGo, one of the low cost airlines, has announced a bonanza for fliers with discount offer starting from Rs 900. The offer is applicable to only a few select routes and available for a limited number of seats. Fliers on Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur-Delhi, Guwahati-Bagdogra, Chandigarh-Srinagar routes are among others who can avail the Rs 900 offer and take benefit of the scheme.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 19 September 2016.

Fares for other routes like Hyderabad-Coimbatore and Delhi-Dehradun start from Rs 1,299 and, on metro-to-metro routes, fares start from Rs 3,199. The fares for Hyderabad-Goa tickets start from Rs 1,699 and flight tickets for the Delhi-Vadodara route will start at Rs 2,599.
IndiGo has not specified the duration of time for which the offer will remain valid.


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Kolkata to get more air connectivity with Delhi courtesy new airline Vistara

Kolkata would soon get another air-connectivity with Vistara planning to launch its air services from Kolkata to Delhi. Vistara is partly owned by the Tatas is expected to operate two flights between the cities and its introductory fare offer is Rs 2,499 (one way) in the economy class. The average fare between the two cities is Rs 6,000.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 12 May 2016.

One of the flights will operate on a daily basis while the other will operate for six days, except on Sundays. Unlike low-cost airlines like IndiGo and SpiceJet, Vistara flights with Airbus A320 will have three segments - business, premium economy and economy.
As indicated by Vistara chairman, the number of business class seats would be slashed and the economy class seats increased. The number of business class seats will be reduced from 16 to eight. Tata Sons owns 51% share of Vistara while Singapore Airlines owns 49% - t was looking at passengers who were not price sensitive.
At present, there are 25 flights that operate daily between Kolkata and Delhi. Jet Airways, Air India and Etihad Airways are the full service airlines operating out of Calcutta. There are low-cost airlines like IndiGo, GoAir and SpiceJet and newcomer Vistara expects good passenger volume from Calcutta.


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