Mumbai based Thomas Cook India Ltd (TCIL) recently introduced a new luxury holiday division called Indulgence, which is targeting high net worth travellers.

Delhi Government has extended the date of mandatory registration policy for all travel trade operators in the state till April 30, 2010. The earlier date fixed by the government was March 31, 2010. Travel trade associations such as Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) and India Association of Tour Operators (IATO) requested the government to extend the date at a meeting held recently with P K Tripathi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister of Delhi.

India would require $120 billion for aircraft acquisition and building aviation infrastructure to meet domestic passenger traffic, which is expected to touch 240-260 million per annum by 2020.

Experts at the recently concluded Delhi Tourism Conclave said that hotels in the middle and upper segments have received a lot of attention for the Commonwealth Games 2010, but low-cost accommodation is required in order to cater to the domestic tourists.

Paramount Airways has been asked to ground half of its fleet strength of six aircraft by the Delhi High Court on Friday. In a major setback for the Chennai-based airline, the court declined its plea to maintain a status quo on the three Embraer planes till the next hearing schedueld for Monday. The airline had said immediate grounding of the aircraft will create problems for their passengers.

Air India has told the Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings that it would be “incorrect” to say that the Union Civil Aviation Ministry had favoured private airlines. The question arose in the context of the allegation that Air India had been made to give up its right to fly to some foreign destinations to private airlines.

India’s private airlines are increasingly turning to social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut to inform passengers, particularly frequent flyers, about promotions and new offers, besides receiving feedback. But experts say their following on these websites is way too low and they lag behind international carriers in using the media imaginatively.

SpiceJet is to launch in the summer season two new direct services in the Ahmedabad-Kolkata and Kolkata-Hyderabad routes, according to a company release.

TripAdvisor India, among the largest travel community site is in the process to Indianise their website. As part of their Indianisation process, TripAdvisor India will provide more features content on destinations and relevant information about travel in India. Currently, the site has a listing of about 12000 Indian hotels and 700 destinations across the country.

It’s a new turf for low-cost carriers (LCCs) where they are setting the rules of the game offering never-before rates with a lot more flight options. South-East Asia, the second-largest market for airlines from India — with 30% of the total international travel coming from this market — is set to witness a shakeout of sorts with LCCs challenging the dominance of traditional full-service network carriers like Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Thai Airways.