News

Madivaru Airport to open in the Maldives

Accessibility to resorts in the Maldives’ Lhaviyani Atoll will be significantly improved with the opening of Madivaru Airport in early February. Flights to and from Male’s Velana International Airport to Madivaru Airport will take just 25 minutes and operate throughout the night. Until now Lhaviyani has been serviced only by seaplanes, where operation is limited to daylight as well as flying from a different terminal at Velana. The flight schedule will commence with three flights per day, scheduled according to arrivals and departures of international flights to ensure minimal wait times for travellers. Madivaru Airport has been developed by Kuredu Holdings and will be managed by the national airline Maldivian, following a management agreement signed by Mohamed Moosa, chairman of Champa Brothers Maldives and co-owner of Crown & Champa Resorts. The project includes land reclamation from Madivaru’s lagoon, construction of a 1,200-metre runway and a passenger terminal.

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E-Passports Will Be Rolled Out In 2022-23 To Enhance Convenience, FM Says

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that e-passports will be issued in the years 2022-23 to ease international travel. Sitharaman made the announcement while she presented the Union Budget in Parliament. The Finance Minister said that the issuance of e-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 as it will make the process easier and more transparent for both the government and the travelers. The e-passports will use Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and biometrics for identity verification. The concept of e-passport is not new and the idea was first announced by S Jaishankar in his first address in 2019 as foreign minister. Sanjay Bhattacharya, secretary in the ministry of external affairs, had recently informed that the new e-passport will secure biometric data, and also be in line with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). At present, citizens are given printed booklets at the time when passports are issued. The e-Passports booklets are embedded with an electronic chip to enhance security and to improve the level of identity verification, according to the government website on the smart card operating system. The overall time required for issuing passports is set to reduce along with addressing current delays in police verification by ensuring information passes electronically from a centralized database to which all relevant authorities would connect. The e-Passport will enhance the security of passports, eliminate duplication, eliminate data tampering, and will be used by border control authorities for monitoring the entry and exit of passengers.

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Thailand Reopens To Quarantine-Free Travel

Thailand has reopened its Test & Go program for vaccinated travelers to be able to bypass mandatory quarantines, expecting the program to welcome between 200,000 to 300,000 travelers this month alone. According to Bloomberg, the country has proven resilient after the few years of the pandemic, growing its vaccination rates and closing its quarantine-free entry program when the Omicron variant was first discovered back in December. The new reopening extends the program to apply to all vaccinated travelers from any country; previously, it was only available for travelers from a list of sixty countries. Thailand is expecting to welcome about 5 million visitors this year, with the majority of travelers coming from the U.S. and Europe. That number could rise to 9 million if Chinese and Indian travelers also use the Test & Go program. The Test & Go program requires an application with full vaccination or at least one dose for children between 12 and 17, or a recovery certificate for adults. All travelers must also provide proof of a recent negative RT-PCR test taken within 72 hours of traveling to Thailand, as well as test again on day one and day five after entering Thailand. A travel insurance plan with COVID-19 protection worth at least $50,000, proof of payment for at least two nights of accommodations and downloading the government tracking app MorChana are also required. “It’s a fine balance between tourism recovery and public health,” said Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi, president of the Thai Hotels Association. “We have to create confidence among the Thai society as there’s still a large group of people hesitant about foreign travelers. If other nations are still hesitant they can come and look at the Thai Test & Go model.”

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Curbs on Mumbai, Delhi flights to Kolkata lifted

Airlines officials on Monday greeted the state government’s decision to remove restrictions on flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Kolkata but said that normal operations would resume only from Wednesday or Thursday onwards as changes in schedules required to reinstate the flights would take some time. However, there is a damper with fresh restrictions being issued on air travel between Bengaluru and Kolkata. Flights from the country’s IT capital will be allowed only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are around 18 daily flights operating between Bengaluru and Kolkata. “This is a huge relief for passengers as they will now be able to travel directly between London and Kolkata. The flight on February 13 has 75% occupancy. This will go up further now that the direct route has been restored,” said an AI official. Sources said they would take a call on bringing in the flight even earlier on February 6 if they could manage a decent load within the next couple of days. Officials of AI, along with IndiGo, SpiceJet, Vistara, AirAsia India and Go First rushed back to the drawing board after the state announced the relaxations in a bid to check out how many of the 40-odd flights that they operated from these two cities to Kolkata can be reinstated and how fast. “Between mid-December and January-end, flight count has halved while passenger figure is down by 60%. But we expect a steady rise in travel demand from February and that should translate to more flights. In any case, Delhi and Mumbai being the high density routes should see most of the flights back in operation. But they are unlikely to happen on Tuesday,” said an airline official. As Covid cases had increased in the run-up to the third wave, the state government had restricted flight arrivals from Delhi and Mumbai to only three days-a-week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday. According to Kolkata airport director C Pattabhi, on these days, Kolkata airport has been getting around 200-210 flights with passenger count around 24,000. On the remaining four, the flight count is down to around 190 and passenger figures around 18,000. In contrast, the airport was catering to 390 flights till mid-December with around 50,000 passengers travelling daily. “This is a sure shot signal of return to normalcy. As the choice of travellers increases, they will be encouraged to travel more. Passenger count that had dipped drastically will quickly go up. It will also lead to resumption of holiday travel, both within the country and abroad. We are looking forward to a bright summer,” said Travel Agents' Federation of India chairman (east), Anil Punjabi. Travel Agents’ Association of India chairman (east) Manav Soni said it indicated the government’s acceptance that we have to move with the waves. “This move will restore passengers’ confidence, ease pressure on the three days and bring down direct flight fares from Delhi and Mumbai to Kolkata by 20-25%,” he said.

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Kolkata Tourism sector pins biz boost hope on Saraswati Puja, Holi

Hoteliers, travel agents, tour operators and tourists breathed a sigh of relief after the state announced tourist spots, parks, entertainment parks and zoos would open with 75% capacity from Tuesday, right before the Saraswati Puja weekend. TOI had written on Monday how a significant number of Kolkatans have resumed travel, both to weekend destinations as well as to other parts of the country, within three weeks of the third wave reaching its peak in the state. While doctors have cautioned against revenge travel and gatherings, many of those who recovered from Covid or Covid-like symptoms in recent weeks said they have regained confidence and started meeting at house parties or small getaways at resorts. Hotel owners in Purulia were glad the relaxation came before the season of Palash when Purulia gets the most tourists. “The season of Palash is set to begin and we hope to get tourists during Saraswati Puja and Holi,” said Mohit Lata, president of Purulia Hoteliers Association. Hotel and resort owners in Digha, Mandarmani and Tajpur hope to get back the flow of tourists from this weekend. “During this time, the hotels were open, but with the parks and museum shut and the beach barricaded, there were few tourists,” said Biprodas Chakraborty of Digha Shankarpur Hotel Owners’ Association. Tour operator Saibal Pathak who manages nature camps in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Dooars and Sunderbans said he has received a dozen queries since Monday evening. “The current relaxations mean tourist attractions in the reserve forests and hills, like Batasia Loop, Tiger Hill and the Darjeeling zoo, can reopen. I guess we are going to have a busy time from this weekend itself,” he said. “Once the fresh relaxations came, I didn’t waste time in booking a solo trip to Darjeeling from Tuesday and left Kolkata on Monday night,” said Gulshanara Khatun, an actor and a Ballygunge resident. Anil Punjabi, chairman, Travel Agents Federation of India, said: “We welcome the move by the state as it has allowed resumption of tourism with the dip in infection count in the state.

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Nepal's second international airport to start operation from May 26

Nepal will soon have a second international airport. The announcement regarding the same has been made by Nepal's Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, Prem Ale. As per the reports, the new airport will be named as Gautam Buddha International Airport, and will begin its operations from May 26, the day which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. The new airport is under construction in the Bhairahawa region of Western Nepal. During his airport inspection, the Minister said, “All international flights can take off and land at the Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) from May 26, the birth anniversary of Lord Buddha.” Earlier, in case of a technical problem in any plane flying in the Nepali sky, the planes had to be diverted to Kathmandu in an emergency situation. This second airport is all set to change that very soon. As of now, Nepal only has Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) for an emergency landing. Arrangements for operations required for an emergency landing as per the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards have been made at the new airport. Thus, planes that cannot land in Kathmandu because of adverse weather, will now be able to land safely in Bhairahawa. An expert team of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (AeroThai) has arrived in Nepal for a mechanical test flight to verify whether the new airport is technically sound or not. The team of experts will fly the calibration flight and see if the flight equipment is working. "A team of AeroThai experts is working to bring the airport into operation on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti," informed airport officials. As per the reports, the calibration and test flight will be carried out within a month.

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