Lufthansa resumes flights from India to Switzerland and Germany

The Lufthansa Group has announced the resumption of Swiss International Airlines operations to Mumbai from international destinations starting from January 10 under the Air Bubble agreement.

In a statement, the Lufthansa Group said that it is resuming Lufthansa flights between Delhi and Munich from January 18, 2022. Lufthansa has also increased Lufthansa frequencies to Frankfurt from India until January 31, 2022. 

Lufthansa resumes flights from India to Switzerland and Germany

As per the announcement, Swiss International Airline has scheduled LX154, from Zurich, Switzerland to Mumbai, India every Monday and Wednesday starting 10 January 2022 and the return flight LX155 from Mumbai to Zurich will be operated on every Wednesday and Friday effective from 12 January 2022.

Flight NoDepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeFreq.Start DateLX154Zurich20:20Mumbai09:05 +1Mon, Wed10th Jan 22LX155Mumbai01:30Zurich06:20Wed, Fri12th Jan 22

The announcement about the flights came after India and Switzerland signed an air bubble pact earlier this month. The agreement permits both countries to operate a specific number of flights in the wake of Covid-19 curbs across the world.

Lufthansa has also announced its flights between India and Germany. As per the updates, the airline will connect Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru with Munich and Frankfurt with special flights operated under air bubble arrangements.

Flights to India:

Flight No.DepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeDays of Dep.LH762Munich12:15Delhi00:10 +1Tue, Thu (18th- 31st Jan)LH762Munich16:25Delhi04:20 +1Sun (23rd- 31st Jan)LH760Frankfurt13:15Delhi01:30 +1Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri, SatLH756Frankfurt12:10Mumbai01:00 +1Wed, Fri, Sun (01st-16th Jan)LH756Frankfurt12:10Mumbai01:00 +1Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun (17-31 Jan)LH754Frankfurt12:50Bengaluru01:55 +1Tue, Fri

The airline said that the air tickets can be purchased via Travel Portals or swiss.com/Lufthansa.com. Moreover, the air passengers need to ensure that they strictly observe the passenger eligibility criteria for these flights at the time of booking.

Flights from India:

Flight No.DepartureDep. TimeArrivalArr. TimeDays of Dep.LX155Mumbai01:30Zurich06:20Wed, Fri (12th-31st Jan)LH763Delhi01:50Munich05:45Wed, Fri (19th-31st Jan)LH763Delhi06:00Munich09:55Mon (24th-31st Jan)LH761Delhi03:35Frankfurt07:45Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat, SunLH757Mumbai02:55Frankfurt07:50Mon, Thu, Sat (1st-15th Jan)LH757Mumbai02:55Frankfurt07:50Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun (17-31st Jan)LH755Bengaluru03:35Frankfurt09:00Mon, Fri

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had on December 1 decided not to resume scheduled international flights from December 15, less than a week after announcing that it would restart the services. However, this suspension won’t apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA.

Notably, the scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.

The announcement about the flights came after India and Switzerland signed an air bubble pact earlier this month.

So far, India has formed air bubble pacts with around 32 countries including Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Canada, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mauritius, Maldives, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Russia, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tanzania, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom (UK), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan and the United States of America (USA).

Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international flights can be operated by their airlines between their territories.

Lufthansa, Germany’s leading airline, also holds Europe’s Leading Airline position for 2020 and has previously been a leading airline for the 27-nation-bloc for six constructive years (2011 to 2016).

Moreover, Lufthansa has been a leading air company in Europe 11 times, leaving behind Swiss-based airlines (Swiss International airlines with five first positions and Swiss Air with five constructive leading spots from1997 to 2001). In addition, British Airways, which is the EU’s leading airline for 2021, holds three top spots. Honourable mentions are Turkish Airways and KLM, with the latter’s leading position being in 2010.

The value and demand for safe airlines have grown more than ever before. There has been a significant drop in air travel around the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. This slump is likely to continue in 2022, with the Omicron variant wreaking havoc in most countries.

As a result, Covid-19 protocols have become a major indicator in determining an airline's safety, alongside factors such as aircraft age, crashes, and serious incidents. This is reflected in some significant changes in AirlineRatings.com's list of the world's safest airlines for 2022, an airline safety and product review website.

Air New Zealand named as the world's safest airline for 2022

Air New Zealand was named the safest airline in the world by the website, which monitored 385 airlines from around the world.

“Air New Zealand is a stand-out airline with a firm focus on safety and its customers and over the past 18 months, COVID-19 has brought another new dimension to the challenges the industry faces.Air New Zealand has excelled across the broad safety spectrum never losing sight of the smallest detail while caring for its flight crews who have worked under significant stress.All airlines have incidents every day and many are aircraft manufacture issues, not airline operational problems. It is the way the flight crew handles incidents that determines a good airline from an unsafe one."Geoffrey Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, AirlineRatings.com

“Throughout the pandemic, the whole Air New Zealand team has been focused on protecting the health and safety of our people, customers, and the wider New Zealand community. We were the first airline in the world to ask our customers flying on our domestic services to either be vaccinated or tested before boarding and come 1 February, will require all customers on our international services to be fully vaccinated too.”Greg Foran, CEO, Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand is followed by Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways to occupy second and third positions respectively.

Qantas, which held the title of the world’s safest airline from 2014 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2021, has slipped to the seventh position due to an incident at Perth airport in 2018. “The report into that complex and serious incident was not issued till late 2020, and too late to be included in our 2021 safety rankings,” the rating portal noted.

Here’s the list of the top 20 safest airlines in the world

1. Air New Zealand

2. Etihad Airways

3. Qatar Airways

4. Singapore Airlines

5. TAP Air Portugal

6. SAS

7. Qantas

8. Alaska Airlines

9. EVA Air

10. Virgin Australia/Atlantic

11. Cathay Pacific Airways

12. Hawaiian Airlines

13. American Airlines

14. Lufthansa/Swiss Group

15. Finnair

16. Air France/KLM Group

17. British Airways

18. Delta Air Lines

19. United Airlines

20. Emirates

AirLineRatings.com also identified the world’s top 10 safest low-cost airlines. In alphabetical order, they are Allegiant, Easyjet, Frontier, Jetstar Group, Jetblue, Ryanair, Vietjet, Volaris, Westjet and Wizz.

Factors like incident records over the past two years, crash records over the past five years, results of audits conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation have been considered to decide the top 10 safest low-cost airlines.

Ireland's Ryan Air comes in the world’s top 10 safest low-cost airlines.

According to Thomas, when it came to safety incidents, the editors only looked at ones in making its determination.

AirlineRatings was launched in June 2013 and rates the safety and in-flight product of 385 airlines using its unique seven-star rating system. It has been used by millions of passengers from 195 countries and has become the industry standard for safety, product and COVID-19 rating.

Jet Airways acting CEO Sudhir Gaur has stepped down from the role on January 5, ahead of the domestic relaunch in the first quarter of 2022. He will be replaced by Captain PP Singh, former senior VP, Operations at JetLite.

Captain P P Singh was one of the senior-most pilots in JetLite. He has almost 20,000 hours of flying hours collectively on three types of aircraft — Boeing 737, Airbus A330 and A340 — and is an examiner on them.

After Jet shut down in April 2019, Captain Singh joined Nepal Airlines as chief pilot and head of training and standards. People in the know say he has resigned from Nepal Airlines and will join Jet 2.0 after the notice period is over.

The private airliner is set to make a comeback after a resolution plan was approved in 2021 to resume operations in 2022, almost two years after it was grounded in April 2019 due to a financial crisis.

Earlier on September 13, 2021, the Jalan Kalrock Consortium had said that it will restart operations with a New Delhi to Mumbai flight. The Consortium had said that it aims to restart short-haul international operations by Q3 or Q4 2022.

While Gaur’s resignation is seen as yet another setback to the virtually stalled revival plan, the news of Captain P P Singh coming in has given a faint ray of hope to some ex-employees from an operational readiness perspective.

A full-service airline, Jet Airways ruled the Indian aviation market till the early years of the past decade before it abruptly shut down operations in April 2019.

Jet stated that Captain Gaur who “recently resigned” was employed in July 2021 as VP of Operations and for purposes of the requirements under civil aviation laws and regulations, as the Accountable Manager of the company. According to the resolution plan approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the day-to-day operations and management of the airline are being carried out by the monitoring committee until the closing date as defined in the plan.

Murari Lal Jalan, lead member of the consortium and proposed promoter and Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways said: “We are excited to embark on the next phase of the revival of India’s most loved Airline. We at JKC await the Hon’ble NCLT’s decision on our last filing and look forward to recommencing operations of Jet Airways at the earliest.”

In the revival plan, Jalan had said that they plan to have more than 50 aircraft in three years and over 100 in five years. The Kalrock-Jalan resolution plan had been approved by the NCLT on June 22, 2021. The Mumbai bench of the NCLT had given the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) 90 days from June 22 to allot slots to Jet Airways.

A full-service airline, Jet Airways ruled the Indian aviation market till the early years of the past decade before it abruptly shut down operations in April 2019. It has been trying to take wings again under new management headed by the Jalan Kalrock Consortium.

Delhi International Airport Limited has completed refurbishing work on the 09/27 runway at Indira Gandhi International Airport and handed over the facility to ATC for commercial operations in late December, which will help in reducing the runway operations time, a release said on Wednesday, January 5.

The newly rehabilitated runway, which was constructed during the British period, complies with Category-I (CAT-I) Instrument Landing System (ILS), which assists pilots during landing an aircraft in low visibility conditions, it said.

DIAL undertook the rehabilitation work of runway 09/27 (first runway) as part of Delhi Airport's phase 3A expansion project.

The refurbished runway of Delhi Airport. (Image Courtesy - Hindustan Times)

According to the private airport operator, the British constructed the 2,816 meter-long and 60 meter-wide runway in the pre-Independence era and used it during World War II.

DIAL said it undertook major rehabilitation works, including milling down the entire length of the runway's flexible pavement to a depth of 60 mm and overlaying it with Polymer Modified Bitumen (PMB), which can withstand heavy-duty traffic and extreme weather conditions.

DIAL has successfully completed the rehabilitation work of Runway 09/27 and its taxiways.

The British-era runway was rehabilitated and made operational for commercial operations as part of DIAL's effort to enhance the infrastructure and passenger experience at Delhi Airport to make it future-ready, said I Prabhakar Rao, Dy Managing Director, GMR Group.

He said the newly rehabilitated runway will have a design life of 20 years and would be instrumental in handling the increased air traffic movements (ATMs), once pre-pandemic level traffic returns to Delhi Airport.

Runway 09/27 is on the northern side of Delhi Airport, and has a network of nine taxiways, out of which, 6 are connecting taxiways and 3 are rapid exit taxiways (RETs), DIAL said, adding it has also realigned a new 3.5 km-long taxiway, parallel to runway 09/27.

This will reduce the Runway Occupancy Time (ROT) and help in improving the traffic flow. As part of the rehabilitation project, DIAL said it has also upgraded the Airfield Ground Lighting (AGL) system for runway 09/27 with a duct and pit system.

Moreover, all the existing lights of the runway and taxiways (around 850) have been upgraded to an LED system for higher efficiency and reliability as a part of rehabilitation work, DIAL said.

Post completion of Phase 3A expansion work, Delhi Airport's passenger handling capacity is expected to increase to 100 million passengers per annum (MPPA), and the airside capacity will enhance to handle 140 MPPA, it said.

Runway 09/27, which is on the northern side of Delhi airport, comprises a network of nine taxiways of which six are connecting taxiways and three are rapid exit taxiways (RETs). DIAL is constructing drains (around 7.3km-long) on both sides of the runway, to cater for the runoff water from the newly rehabilitated runway and its associated taxiways.

The middle east major is seeking $618 million in damages from the manufacturer, Airbus in a dispute over untimely erosion of the surface of some of its A350s, according to the court documents.

Additionally, Qatar Airways intends to bill Airbus to the tune of $4 million every day until 21 of its A350 airplanes remain grounded by Qatar's regulator over the skin damage, which includes erosion and gaps in a layer of lightning protection.

The European jetliner's largest customer moved to a London court to officiate the claim in December, saying Airbus had failed to provide a full root-cause analysis needed to satisfy its questions over the airworthiness of some 40% of its A350 fleet. Other A350 customers are also understood to have identified similar, although less severe, issues. No other airline has grounded their planes.

Not long ago, Airbus had escalated the long-running dispute, saying it will seek an independent legal assessment of claims by Qatar Airways about the quality of surfaces on its A350 widebody aircraft. The European aeroplane maker did not name the Qatari carrier but referred to recent claims about the quality of the paint and other surface issues on the A350.

Airbus is understood to have identified certain solutions to the problems, some of which have been implemented. Qatar was unavailable for comment on Thursday evening. Al Baker claimed last month Airbus still did not have a solution.

Because they still don’t know what?.?.?.?has happened”. “It is always better when there is a problem to admit, not to put your customer in a corner and blame them for something that is actually your own problemCEO Al Baker

The airline operates 53 A350s, although 20 of the jets have been grounded on the instructions of the Qatari Civil Aviation Authority. Qatar has another 23 on order but has halted further deliveries during the dispute. Singapore Airlines is the biggest operator of the A350.

Air traffic between Kashmir and the rest of the country remained affected for the second consecutive day on Wednesday due to inclement weather as intermittent snowfall was reported from most parts of the valley over the past 24 hours, officials said here.

"Flight operations have not been possible at Srinagar airport today due to inclement weather. Four flights have been cancelled so far," a senior official of the Airport Authority of India told PTI. He said the resumption of air traffic would depend on the weather conditions.

It has been snowing in most places of the valley intermittently over the past few days but the arterial Srinagar-Jammu national highway is open for vehicular traffic, an official of the Traffic Department said. He said motorists have been advised to exercise caution while travelling on the national highway because of the snowfall. The suspension of air traffic has resulted in hundreds of tourists getting stranded in the valley.

"Poor visibility due to light snow prevails at our airport. Following flights have been cancelled till now:- Indigo 137 to Delhi, Indigo 6738 to Jammu, Indigo 2015 to Delhi, Indigo 2364 to Delhi, GoFirst 358 to Delhi, GoFirst 193 to Delhi, GoFirst 267 to Delhi and Vistara 611 to Jammu," a tweet from Srinagar Airport said.

Officials in the Tourism Department said a good number of tourists had arrived in Kashmir for celebrating New Year and were planning to return home now. The snowfall has resulted in warmer-than-expected nights in the valley but the weatherman has forecast colder days for the next two days.

Srinagar Airport (Image Courtesy - Greater Kashmir)

Srinagar recorded the minimum temperature of 0.8 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night's 0.6 degrees Celsius, the officials said. Gulmarg, the famous skiing resort in north Kashmir, recorded a low of minus 4 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night's 5 degrees Celsius.

The officials said Pahalgam, which serves as the base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, recorded a low of minus 0.4 degrees Celsius, up from minus 1.2 degrees Celsius the previous night. They said Qazigund, the gateway town to the valley, recorded a minimum of 0.8 degrees Celsius, while the nearby south Kashmir town of Kokernag recorded a low of 0.1 degrees Celsius.

The mercury in Kupwara in north Kashmir settled at a low of zero degrees Celsius. The MET Office has forecast widespread snow/rain spells of moderate to heavy intensity till January 8. Heavy snow is expected at some places during the period as well, it said.

Snowfall in Kashmir Valley, road, air links snapped

Kashmir valley is currently under the grip of the 40-day harshest winter period known as 'Chilla-i-Kalan' which began on December 21. 'Chilla-i-Kalan' is a period when a cold wave grips the region and the temperature drops considerably leading to the freezing of water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake here as well as the water supply lines in several parts of the valley.

The chances of snowfall are the most frequent and maximum during this period and most areas, especially in the higher reaches, receive heavy to very heavy snowfall. The 'Chillai Kalan' will end on January 31, but the cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir with a 20-day-long 'Chillai Khurd' (small cold) and a 10-day-long 'Chillai Bachha' (baby cold).