Looking for ways to tide over the financial crisis that has affected the civil aviation sector, representatives of private airlines as well as chief of the State-run Air India held detailed discussions with the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, here on Monday.

The Mumbai International airport is yet to receive any communiqué from the Centre on screening passengers at the domestic terminal. The same holds for schools, multiplexes and hotels.

Swine flu couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Indian hospitality sector. Industry watchers see H1N1 hitting the hotel business badly. Hotels fear a drop in business travellers and tourists till the situation normalises. The swine flu scare has resulted in most of the hotel companies focusing on domestic packages to improve profitability during the period.

After receiving a less than expected response for its Bangalore-London-Bangalore service, the Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines has decided to pull out from this route September 15 onwards and has given a fresh proposal to the civil aviation ministry, seeking permission to fly on the Delhi-London route.

Fly Dubai, the low-cost airline floated by the Ai-Maktoum royal family of Dubai recently, has started refunding passengers after being forced to defer its India plans with government clearances not coming through. The cold shoulder from civil aviation authorities comes amidst concerns that Fly Dubai’s fares could hit the Middle East operations of Air India Express, the budget airline of the bleeding national carrier.

For the first time there will be road shows al over India to tap them special holiday packages. Eager to get the tourism sector back on track after the global economic recession and Mumbai terror strike, the Tourism Ministry would begin with a road show in Kolkata with special emphasis on North-eastern States. This move is significant because domestic tourists number 560 million in India.

In a bid to give further boost to tourism in the hill state and attract both domestic and foreign tourists, the Himachal Pradesh government is preparing a long term master tourism plan for Shimla and other parts of the state, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told state assembly today.

Airline passengers now have the choice to upgrade from the economy class to a higher one at a fraction of the normal cost.

The Tourism ministry has issued a new 24-page guideline for approval and classification of hotels that mandate an eight-year lock-in period for one to four-star hotels getting tax benefits and subsidies to serve as budget accommodations.

The competition in the low-fare flight segment is all set to intensify. Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines and Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways are looking at East and West Asia for full service offerings, and come September, Air India’s low-fare offering too will be airborne.