The world’s first demo flight with 40 people on board a KLM Boeing 747, fuelled on 50% camelina, a biofuel, and 50% traditional Twitter Facebook Share Email Print Save Comment fuel, circles over Netherlands for an hour. January 30, 2009: A Boeing 747-300 Japan Airlines test flight takes off from Tokyo with a biofuel mix of camelina, jatropha and algae.

In new initiative, UK’s premier carrier British Airways launched the ‘British Airways Business Opportunity Grants’ on Monday, which aims at helping India’s growing number of SMEs.

It claims to be the country’s first low-cost air charter operation. It will offer destinations either not connected or with limited connection, but at the same fare you would pay for a business class ticket. All you have to do is to ensure there are three customers travelling together on its Cirrus aircraft (which has three seats).

In view of promoting night tourism and capturing every visitor’s eye during the next year’s Commonwealth Games, the India Tourism Development Corporation is quite busy illumining the city’s monuments.

British Airways Plc could revive plans for a tie-up with Qantas Airways Ltd, using its merger with Spain’s Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA as a template, Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh told the Financial Times.

The Indian hotel industry which has been hit badly by the economic downturn, last November’s Mumbai terror attacks and a slew of travel advisories issued by various countries in the wake of Swine flu, is looking forward to a fuller recovery in occupancy levels by 2010.

If you visit a travel portal, and search for the best available air fares between Delhi and Mumbai, you will find that every airline is offering similar fares. That’s the biggest challenge facing budget carriers like SpiceJet since they began flying.

In a move quantifying India’s position on the employment of foreign workers on Indian projects, the government has said that only one highly-skilled foreign professional will be permitted for every 100 local or Indian labourers.

Leading British hotel chain Premier Inn on Thursday announced its entry into the domestic mid-market hospitality segment with the launch of its first hotel in Banglore.”There is a huge demand for cost-effective and quality rooms from both corporate and individual travelers,” said Premier Inn India Managing Director Ally Sheriff.

A record 10.8 million Indian tourists went on a globetrotting spree in 2008-09,the worst year of the economic slowdown, as dipping airfares and lower hotel rates made holidays cheaper. This was one million more outbound tourists than the year before.