Travelocity Global on Monday said it has acquired India’s leading online hotel distribution network, Travelguru.Travelocity Global is one of the world’s largest online Travelocity, lastminute.com and ZUJI business worldwide generating more than $10 billion in gross travel sales annually.

Despite all the talk of the great untapped potential that the domestic tourism market offers, which could offset some of the losses in the decline in foreign tourist arrivals in the country in the last few months, the growth in domestic travel more than halved to 7% in calendar year 2008 compared to 14% in 2007.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Independence Day speech has raised fresh hopes within the aviation ministry and stakeholders with regard to the revival package for the ailing Air India.

Private carrier Jet Airways will be converting about 70 per cent of it overall fleet size into its low-cost arm, Jet Konnect, company officials said. It's also planning a fare hike by the end of the year.

A new policy on ground-handling services at airports would restrict passenger check-in, baggage screening and refueling to select specialised players, a move that private airliners have strongly opposed saying this will force them to axe around 8,000 employees engaged in such services.

AIR China, the owner of 17,5% of Cathay Pacific Airways, would buy as much as 13% more of the carrier from Citic Pacific, sources said yesterday .

Looking are new ways to generate revenue, the Punjab tourism department is now promoting a “rich, rural experience “for tourists in its villages. The initiative was also lauded at a travel and tourism fair organized in Hyderabad recently. Where the department bagged the “best innovative product” for its concept of farm tourist.

There has been an uptick in the number of business class passengers carried by Jet Airways and Air India (domestic) on their domestic flights in recent times. Frequent fliers on Kingfisher have noticed a similar trend. So are domestic airlines seeing a turnaround in their fortunes?

Passengers may soon have to pay for food on board low-fare service Kingfisher Red as the parent carrier, Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, studies ways to change the way it operates in a deteriorating market condition.

Challenging private airport operators’ claim that landing and parking charges at Indian airports are the lowest, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said the country’s two busiest airports, Delhi and Mumbai, are among the world’s most expensive.