Vistara to begin a daily flight from Kolkata to Delhi for travelers to Europe

Vistara is a full-service airline and it will begin a regular flight from Kolkata to Delhi to connect travelers to European carriers for onward journey to their destinations. Vistara has an eye on the city's yawning European gulf. It has commercial tie-ups with major international carriers like British Airways, Air France and KLM and will connect Europe-bound travelers from Kolkata to their flights from Delhi.
Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 10 June 2016.

Vistara plans to start off with two Delhi flights, one daily and another for six days a week barring Sunday. It seems European airlines are unable to get enough business to fly from Calcutta but are keen to get these passengers. Hence, they are going in for a tie-up. At present, Europe-bound passengers from Kolkata have to choose between taking an international airline that connects them to their destinations through the Gulf or fly out to Delhi or Mumbai.
Vistara expects to get 15 to 20 seats of Europe-bound travelers on every flight and will operate 158-seater Airbus 320 aircraft on the Calcutta-Delhi sector. The incentive or pull factor would be special baggage allowance which will be one-and-a-half to two times more than normal, depending on the class of travel. There would be three segments: business, premium economy and economy.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Switzerland builds the 57-Km long Gotthard Railway Tunnel under the Swiss Alps

Shocking discovery of carcasses of 40 tiger cubs in Tiger Temple of Thailand

WWII bomb in London bound Eurostar in Paris creates panic


All about chest size and happy days (satire)

Lord Shiva unable to fathom IPL T20 cricket (satire)

Monsoons and Didi’s flipflops aka Hawaii chappals (satire)


Rock music festival in Germany suspended due to lightning strike in which more than 70 injured

Arnold Schwarzenegger was chased by an elephant in South Africa

Kavita Kaushik to play the role of an Army doctor in TV show “Dr. Bhanumati on Duty”


ISIS using human shields to counter attacks by Iraq military

ISIS cornered as Russian-backed Syrian army enters ISIS stronghold in Raqqa

Germany arrests three ISIS men who planned an attack on Duesseldorf

Kolkata wants Europe flights to return – chief minister talks to civil aviation minister

Once upon a time the Kolkata airport had several International Airlines like BOAC, Lufthansa, Japan Air Lines apart from Air India operating services to different European countries – but, the absence of enough passengers and, more importantly, high-value business travelers led to their departure. Kolkata became a low-priority destination for European airlines.
However, chief minister Mamata Banerjee wants them to come back and, hence, she had a meeting with civil aviation minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju who has indicated that he would request Air India to consider reintroducing direct flights to Europe from Calcutta.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 25 September 2015.

In the course of a meeting held in Nabanna with chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the civil aviation minister remarked that the state government's major concerns were direct flights to Europe and inactive airports in the state. He agreed to take up the matter of direct flights to Europe with Air India.
He also added that Air India have to follow a system to follow but, everyone has to work together to motivate the airlines in order to bridge the gap. Air India, British Airways and Lufthansa had the permission to operate direct flights between Calcutta and Europe – they would require sufficient number of business-class passengers to get motivated.
Air India had withdrawn its direct flight between Europe and Calcutta in 2007 for "commercial and operational" reasons – a euphemism for lack of passengers.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

ASI hikes entry fees to Taj Mahal by 200%

Heavy rains lash Pune, trains cancelled, passengers stranded for hours in trains

Bangalore does not want people to feed pigeons in Cubbon Park


NBA Superstar 7ft 2in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to publish novel on Mycroft Holmes, elder brother of Sherlock Holmes

Priyanka Chopra and Monica Dogra nominated by VH1for Europe Music Awards 2015

John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha shoot ‘Force 2’ in Ethnographic Museum Budapest


Death toll rises to 193 in fuel tanker explosion in South Sudan

Taliban attacks mosque in Peshawar Air Force base and leaves 20 dead

Russia sends fighter jets to Syria to bolster Assad’s defenses


36-days for Durga Puja and the dhakis get ready

Industries just do not gel with West Bengal

Bengalis are daydreamers tied to mothers’ apron strings

St Helena Island to get an airport and come out of isolation

St Helena Island is known in history as the island where French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte spent his last days and, with no air connectivity, visitors had to reach the tiny island situated in the middle of the South Atlantic by the RMS St. Helena. This ship leaves Cape Town on a five and half day trip, every three weeks from Cape Town.
However, all that is going to change and the first ever airport is slated to open up in 2016. The population of the island is 4500 and, till now, it has had only 1500 visitors on an average every year.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 24 August 2015.

Comair, a South African airline and British Airways franchisee, has already been selected to operate a weekly flight between the island and Johannesburg. Apart from these, Atlantic Star Airlines, a start-up founded by former British Airways pilots, is getting ready for its project to link St. Helena to the UK by air.
It would be a 4.5-hour passenger flights weekly and these are scheduled to begin from Johannesburg in February 2016. It is expected that nearly 30, 000 tourists will be visiting the island every year once flights to St Helena begin.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)


Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Anaconda in a pothole of Bengaluru to galvanize the authorities to act

Cochin airport goes ecofriendly – to become only solar powered airport in the world

V Festival in Chelmsford could face tornadoes, hail and thunderstorms


Ice Cube would love to have dinner with Barack Obama once he leaves White House

Indian names of Pallavi Sharda and Dev Patel in Hollywood film ‘Lion’

Hugh Jackman of Wolverine fame could portray the role of Greek hero Odysseus


White House discloses – 2nd in command of ISIS killed in drone strike in Mosul

Bomb blast outside temple of Lord Brahma in Bangkok leaves at least 27 dead

Scuba diver smuggles cocaine across US-Mexico border via underwater tunnel


Indian kitchens must have ‘besan’

The lost world of ‘kabiraji cutlets’

Growing up days – I begin to go to the daily market

Mamata Banerjee to waive tax on ATF for airlines that operate direct flights to Europe

On the eve of her departure for London to woo investors, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has indicated that Bengal is ready to will waive tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) for any airline that is willing to operate direct flights from Calcutta to Europe.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 27 July 2015.

She had a meeting with senior airport officials and bureaucrats in her entourage before she board Air India's Calcutta-Delhi-London flight where she made this announcement. She has asked the airport director to start the ball rolling and approach airlines with this unique offer.
However, how far this would appeal to airlines is a matter of debate – as officials of several international airlines feel that such flights would be viable only if there was a steady flow of business fliers who weren't "price-sensitive" and who were frequent travelers. That is, sadly, not there because Kolkata offers very few business-class passengers to airlines. The reason is the lack of industry. There used to be at least two European carriers, British Airways and Lufthansa that have left the city because of low yield.
Incidentally, the Bengal Global Business Summit held in last January could not attract any international airline to provide direct connectivity to Europe and/or the US.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

CBSE to check cheating in AIPMT exams – examinees can wear only T-shirt and jeans

Mamata’s TMC received hate mail before her tour of UK to woo investors

Vallauris beach closed to tourists because Saudi King Salman will holiday there in private

Good news keep pouring in – major uranium reserve found in Srisailam

Uttar Pradesh repents and repeals ban on screening of films in luxury buses


Britain’s MI6 joins Turkey to fight ISIS

Gang of 80 suspected Boko Haram men attack village in Cameroon and kill 23

Father of two, living in Liverpool, tries to buy deadly ricin powder – then, a pet to test it on


Some live years after retirement, others do not

No escape from the jaws of death

Airlines like Lufthansa and British Airways shun Kolkata because of low demands

The director of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata has admitted that poor demand is one of the main reasons why European airlines like Lufthansa or British Airways are not keen to fly from the Calcutta skies.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 18 July 2015.

There is a need to have corporate travelers, who are not price sensitive and who usually form the backbone of the market for such airlines. But, these ae few in number in the state due to lack of industry in the state. Instead Kolkata airport sees seasonal rush of holiday-makers and the admission season exodus of students.
It seems the airport authorities had approached some European carriers but the necessary response was not there because of the lack of enough business travelers – airlines have to sell high-yield seats to make a profit on a route. Lufthansa used to operate from Kolkata but had withdrawn in March 2012 when its Calcutta-Frankfurt service failed to generate enough revenue. British Airways had also withdrawn for the same reason.
The trouble is that the international air traffic for Kolkata consists of mostly tourists and traders and that also is seasonal. Incidentally, only 30 per cent of the tickets sold on flights to and from Calcutta are for business travel. In comparison, the figures for Mumbai and Delhi are 70 per cent while it is 60 percent in Bangalore.
Obviously, input of foreigners would be liked with business opportunities apart from good infrastructure. These need to be improved to attract foreigners.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -
Revolution in the skies - Airbus flies electric plane E-Fan across the English Channel

CBSE to check cheating in AIPMT exams – examinees can wear only T-shirt and jeans

Nine-year-old boy of Philippines studies in the light from a McDonald’s restaurant

Drone hovering over TISS campus in Mumbai sets off alarms

Typhoon Chan-hom strikes eastern coast of China with wind speeds of 173-Kmph


Boko Haram going the way of ISIS – releases first beheading video

US drone strike has killed top ISIS leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Parents of 14-year-old girl arrested for forcing her to live in the woods for eating Pop-Tart


Where are the stamp collectors and pen friends?

Religion on Indian television