Top Airline news this week

Here's a summary of major airline/aviation news this week
1. Laptop Ban lifted on Qatar Emirates and Etihad
Some good news to US bound travelers- the laptop ban enforced on 10 Airports has been relaxed a bit with Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi getting exemption, effectively all Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad passengers now can carry their laptops in hand bag inside the cabin.

Read detailed news here and here

2. Indigo Passengers injured in Delhi:
5 Indigo passengers inside a bus heading to their plane in Delhi were injured this week, reportedly due to jet blast from a spicejet plane taxing to its bay. Read the news here, more details awaited

3. Air India Delhi- Washington DC direct flight starts
Washington will be 5th US destination for India's National carrier Air India. Delhi-Washington direct flight has been started this week, with a 777-200 equipment. AI 103 and AI 104 will fly 3 days a week ferrying upto 238 passengers per flight.
Detailed news here

4. Flying out of Delhi is now cheaper
UDF has been reportedly cut down to Rs 10 per passenger (domestic) from an earlier Rs 275-550, for passengers flying out of IGI New Delhi as per this ET Article. For international passengers now it is Rs 45, down from Rs 500-1000+ earlier. Your flight should now be cheaper by a few hundred rupees and you can use that for buying meal may be! I did a quick check on Spicejet website to see if this is true and indeed (but at Rs 12 instead of 10, 2 Rs tax?)
5. Indigo looking to start low cost long haul flights
As per this news, while trying to buy part of Air India's business, Indigo is looking to introduce a low cost long haul unit, something similar to Air Asia X, I assume. There is huge potential if Indigo can launch cheap flights to Europe, Africa and South East Asia from major Indian cities. There's hardly any budget airline flying to Europe from India right now, so we're paying upwards of 35000+ per trip in full service airlines, to say Paris or Amsterdam from India. If Indigo can offer the same in 22000-25000 range, they will have great occupancy. Similarly for many South East asian destinations we are dependent on Air Asia/Scoot like carriers with a one stop flight. If Indigo can introduce direct flights it will be more convenient and hopefully cheaper.

Are there any other aviation/airline news that got your attention this week? Let us know.

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