Indian Airports Drop Turkish, Chinese Partners Amid Geopolitical Tensions
The India-Pakistan armed conflict may have ended, but the fallout continues to impact how Indian travel companies conduct business.
Indian airports have terminated agreements with Turkish and Chinese firms for their support for Pakistan during the India-Pakistan armed conflict earlier this month. This comes after several Indian travel companies suspended new bookings to Turkey and Azerbaijan.
On Thursday, India revoked the security clearance for Turkey-based Celebi's airport operations in what it called the 'interest of national security.' The company provides airport ground handling services at New Delhi, Kerala, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Goa airports. Shortly after, Delhi airport said it had 'officially ended its association' with the company for its ground and cargo operations. In response, Celebi filed a lawsuit against India on Friday.
Celebi's operations were replaced by Indian counterparts IndoThai, AISATS, and the Bird Group at Mumbai and Delhi airports overnight.
Also on Thursday, Adani Airports Holdings said that it was terminating its recent partnership with Chinese company DragonPass, which offers airport lounge access services. The termination came a week after the association started.
A spokesperson of Adani Airports said that the termination was immediate. Consequently, DragonPass members no longer have access to lounges at Adani-managed seven airports across India.
A Reuters report on Friday said Air India was lobbying to halt IndiGo's leasing collaboration with Turkish Airlines. However, Air India has denied these reports.
Under the agreement, IndiGo received two planes with pilots and some crew from the Turkish flag carrier to operate on New Delhi and Mumbai to Istanbul routes. Following the reports, IndiGo has defended its codeshare agreement and leasing tie-up with Turkish Airlines, saying that the arrangement benefits Indian travelers, creates jobs, and supports aviation growth.
The lease agreement is valid until May 31 this year and is pending government approval for extension. However, a report by Indian news platform NDTV Profit said that the government is unlikely to extend the partnership, which is currently under review.
Strained Ties: Earlier this month, Turkey and Azerbaijan officially condemned India's strikes on terror bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in response to a terror attack that killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam on April 22.
U.S. Visa Wait Times Exceed 1 Year for Indians
The wait time in India for tourist visas to the U.S. has now gone back to exceeding a year and that has mostly to do with the demand coming from Indians wanting to visit the U.S. Delays in appointments for B1/B2 visas in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai range between 7.5 months to 13.5 months, according to the U.S. department of state website.
There is also a scarcity of priority slots, meant for expedited appointments for urgent cases.
The U.S. government has resumed full visa operations in India, but the demand is outpacing available slots leading to an extreme backlog across consulates.
While the U.S. was witnessing sharp decline in travel interest from others countries, Indians were expressing growing enthusiasm to visit the country, a Skift Research survey showed last month. Indian travelers were the only major group to report a net positive shift in their intent to visit the U.S. over the past 12 months, the report read.
Last year, the U.S. mission in India announced that it had reduced the visa wait times to 250 days in India.
The U.S. Embassy in India this weekend has also issued an advisory warning Indian citizens against overstaying in the U.S. during their visit. 'If you remain in the United States beyond your authorized period of stay, you could be deported and could face a permanent ban on traveling to the United States in the future,' the mission said on X on Saturday.
India Reported Highest Number of Outbound Travelers in 2024
As Indian travelers continued to travel, the country posted its highest number of outbound travelers on record last year, according to the new Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI) report. The report noted that Indian tourists' top three destinations were Abu Dhabi, Hanoi, and Bali. This growth is supported by increased direct connectivity and a rapidly growing middle class, it said.
It also noted that tourists from India, along with those from Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, are sensitive to exchange rate fluctuations. 'A 1% depreciation of the United States Dollar (USD) against their local currencies corresponds to an approximate 0.6–0.8% increase in the number of tourists traveling to the U.S.,' it said, adding that these travelers are more responsive to exchange rate movements while selecting outbound destinations.
Oyo Reports 20% Growth in Corporate Clients
Indian hospitality company Oyo reported a 20% year-on-year surge in its corporate client base during the 2024-25 financial year. Oyo said it added 3,500 new corporate clients through the year, with its network now consisting of over 6,500 corporate clients.
In a statement, Oyo said that its corporate travel business received a significant boost after the launch of Oravel Travel Solutions in October last year. Oravel Travel Solutions is a dedicated B2B platform through which the company aims to capture the burgeoning corporate travel business.
Oyo further noted that it has recorded a surge in long stays and event-based stays with the corporate clients.
IndiGo Adds 3 New Flights to the Gulf Region
IndiGo has announced three new international routes between India and the Gulf region. The carrier is set to commence flights connecting Kochi and Hyderabad to Bahrain. It will also operate on the Chennai-Muscat route.
All of these routes are set to commence next month. The three routes improve IndiGo's connectivity from South India to the Gulf region. The announcements come weeks after the airline launched new services to Abu Dhabi from Madurai, Bhubaneswar, and Visakhapatnam.
Skift had reported last year that India's rising significance in the Middle East is leading to airlines from India as well as the region to add frequencies and new routes to enhance connectivity.
Mizoram Witnesses 114% Surge in Tourism
The Northeastern state of Mizoram received nearly 470,000 tourists during the 2024-25 financial year through February, according to data released by the Mizoram Tourism Department. This was more than double the number of tourist footfalls in the state the year prior. The 114% surge is significant even as the data for March 2025 remains to be compiled.
The data showed that the over 464,000 tourists visiting the state were domestic travelers, while a little over 5,000 international tourists visited the state. Foreign travelers included those from the U.S., UK, China, Japan, and Germany. Most tourists visited the state for business, the officials said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
7 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Anna Wintour is hiring at Vogue. Here's how to thrive when your boss used to have your job.
Whomever replaces Anna Wintour in running day-to-day operations at American Vogue will have some enormous stilettos to fill. That's partly because Wintour, who's 75, has been at the job for nearly four decades and is a legend in the business. It's also because whoever comes next will report to her. Wintour, who became Vogue's editor in chief in 1988, is giving up that role. However, she'll remain global editorial director at the magazine and chief content officer for its parent company, Condé Nast, the company said Thursday. Taking on a senior role, similar to the one Wintour vacated at Vogue, is often challenging, especially when the predecessor remains on hand, leadership experts told Business Insider. Incoming leaders are wise to signal that they want to make changes without abandoning what makes an organization work, said Kevin Groves, a professor of management at Pepperdine's Graziadio Business School. "We're preserving what's most important to us, while recognizing our environment has changed," he said. Here are three pieces of advice on taking over after a leader who looms large — and who might still be down the hall. Don't be impatient Stepping into this position successfully starts with indicating sincere interest in the role and prioritizing what's best for the organization, Nancy Ho, an executive coach based in Singapore, told BI. "You cannot be impatient and rush into it. It should not be seen like you're power-hungry or claiming a role prematurely," Ho said. Instead, she said, new leaders need to focus on understanding a company's culture and how they can position themselves as an asset to the organization. James Reed, CEO of the UK-based recruitment company Reed, said there is no harm in declaring to your boss that you are ambitious and aim to lead an organization, "even if you avoid explicitly saying you're after their job." "Ask what you need to learn and what more you can contribute to support them," Reed said. "Then they will be aware of your ambition but appreciate that you are seeking to help and learn from them rather than undermine them." Don't rock the boat too early Ho said it's important not to make drastic changes too soon upon getting the job. Ho recommended that the first step is acknowledging the good work done before them. Then, they should gain the team's trust by carefully working with them and making small, gradual changes to improve the organization's effectiveness. "When there's a certain buy-in, and people are more comfortable with a different leader, then you introduce changes," she said. Sabina Nawaz, a US-based CEO coach, said new leaders should not make changes for at least the first three months because the first thing to do after receiving the title is "to be curious." "Go on a listening tour, excavate the reasons behind decisions or actions, try to make sense of things from the perspective of others: given that they're smart and well-meaning, what did they have in mind when they acted this way," Nawaz said. Christian Tröster, a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Germany's Kühne Logistics University, told BI that new leaders can demonstrate they're becoming part of the organization by being careful not to suggest that everything should change. "Because then you're showing that you are not like them, that you cannot be trusted," Tröster said. "Then you don't have the commitment of your employees to actually go with you." Tröster said that when an incoming leader would have to report to the person who held the post in the past, it's important to have a conversation about expectations. He said that while org charts are often clear, layers are often not always evident, including what relationships people have and who they tend to go to for advice. "I would try to make that visible," Tröster said. That way, he said, workers know who they're expected to go to and leaders and employees can agree to the arrangement. Don't be afraid to be different For those taking over a new role while their predecessor is still around — especially someone as "established and admired" as Anna Wintour, it's important to take advantage of your access to them, Amanda Augustine, a career coach at told BI via email. "Start the job as a sponge, learning what you can from your predecessor and other colleagues," she said, adding that it's important not to stay in information-gathering mode forever. Jochen Menges, a professor of leadership at the University of Zurich and the University of Cambridge, told BI that new leaders should "be different" and avoid trying to replicate the exact leadership style or strategy of the person they're replacing. "If they're too close, then they'll seem to be a copy, and then they can never live up," he said. When new bosses are different in some ways, Menges said, they can be "a leader in their own right."
USA Today
29 minutes ago
- USA Today
Congress, stop neglecting the farm bill. Only luck has shielded us from disaster.
From foreign actors smuggling in crop diseases to outbreaks like the bird flu, America has come dangerously close to disaster. Our luck cannot continue. There is nothing more American than agriculture. Yet, it's often an afterthought in national security ‒ and it shouldn't be. FBI agents have recently arrested three Chinese scientists accused of smuggling biological materials into the United States. In the first case, the boyfriend of a University of Michigan researcher is accused of concealing baggies containing a potentially devastating plant fungus in a wad of tissues in his backpack; in the second, a Chinese scientist was arrested entering the United States on suspicion of mailing biological material related to roundworms to a laboratory at the same university. Whether the roundworm material or the version of Fusarium graminearum in the baggies could cause billions of dollars in damage to our farmers and food supply remains unclear ‒ but the fact that these biological materials entered the country through the mail and Detroit's airport should serve as a wake-up call. Risks keep growing in food and agriculture industry From foreign actors smuggling in crop diseases to outbreaks like the latest avian flu, the United States has come dangerously close to disaster ‒ and we've avoided it not because we were prepared, but because we have been lucky. America is among the most food-secure nations in the world, but it's time to treat food and agriculture as critical components of our national security. The cost of not doing so is simply far too high. Today, food and agriculture contribute $1.537 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product, and the sector employs more than 22 million people. Farming is a defining feature of our identity. But while politicians pose in front of barns, tractors and fields for campaign ads, meaningful agricultural security policy sits on the back burner as the risks keep growing. Opinion: Many American farmers agree with spending cuts. But those policies hurt farms most. In 2020, more than 30,000 unsolicited packages of seeds were sent from China to random American households. While the government eventually determined that these shipments were not a deliberate act of biological warfare, the next time they may be. Pathogens, pests and invasive weeds could have easily hidden in these packages, potentially yielding devastating damage to our crops, causing billions of dollars in economic damage. You've heard of bird flu, but what about African Swine Fever? Before avian flu caused egg prices to go up and cows to get sick, African Swine Fever was making a home right outside of our borders. This virus is now on the island of Hispaniola, comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic, fewer than 700 miles from the United States. With millions of U.S. tourists visiting the island each year and hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants fleeing due to criminal activity and insecurity, we have been lucky the virus has not found its way to the United States on the sole of someone's shoe. African Swine Fever spreading in the United States could create losses of up to $50 billion to the U.S. pork industry. There's also plenty of evidence of 'agroterrorism' out there. In China, for example, criminal gangs have been known to spread the virus between farms for economic gain. Opinion: Amid bird flu, farmers culled millions of chickens ‒ but USDA fired workers helping to deal with outbreak The U.S. government needs to pay as much attention to securing food and agriculture as to other national and economic security threats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture works diligently to protect and promote the nation's agriculture from natural and accidental threats, but it operates as a trade agency, not a national security agency. Vital USDA programs for identifying agricultural threats are historically underfunded compared with their public health counterparts. The Farm Bill, which authorizes and prioritizes policies and programs for agriculture, has not been updated since 2018. This means that programs like the National Veterinary Stockpile, which protects the nation's food supply, will continue to operate on a shoestring budget that is less than 1% of its public health counterpart. Congress needs to modernize and approve a Farm Bill designed to protect national and economic security. As a first step, the bill should establish a senior USDA position for national and homeland security. Appointed by the president, this official can be responsible for threats to agricultural security. Further, Congress needs to appropriately fund programs that secure U.S. agriculture. The cost of inaction far outweighs any expenditure. Our government's response to the current avian flu has already cost $1.4 billion alone ‒ response always costs more than prevention. The USDA works tirelessly to protect our food, health, national and economic security, but today it's fighting a wildfire with a watering can. We have managed to evade an economic catastrophe, but our luck cannot continue. Congress must prioritize and invest in agricultural security by updating and passing a Farm Bill. It is in everyone's interest. David Stiefel serves as a director for the Global Biological Policy and Programs team at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. Before joining NTI, Stiefel held several senior roles on the National Security Council at the White House and directed the government's biopreparedness review, resulting in the 2022 National Biodefense Strategy. He also led efforts to shape U.S. government plans to strengthen the security and resilience of U.S. food and agriculture.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
US Virtual Embassy in Iran urges Americans to evacuate country immediately after partial airspace reopening
The U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran is insisting that Americans leave the Middle Eastern country amid conflicts in the region after a partial reopening of its airspace. This comes after a ceasefire agreement between Iran and Israel to end the nearly two-week conflict. "As of June 26, 2025, Iran's airspace has been partially reopened, although business trips from Tehran and other major centers may be interrupted," the embassy said in an advisory. "US citizens should follow local media and consult with commercial airlines to get more information about flights departing from Iran." American citizens who wish to leave Iran must travel by land to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey or Turkmenistan if the conditions are safe, the embassy said. The U.S. State Department created a crisis information acceptance form for American citizens in Iran to provide information on consular assistance, the embassy noted. But because of the limitations of consular support in Iran, the embassy said it does not anticipate that withdrawal from Iran will be provided with direct assistance from the U.S. government. U.S. citizens who plan to leave Iran must use the available facilities to leave the country, it said. The embassy encouraged Americans wanting to leave Iran to take several actions, including having a plan to leave immediately without relying on the U.S. government, keeping their phones charged and communicating with loved ones about their situation, preparing an emergency plan for emergency situations and signing up for alerts from the U.S. government such as the Intelligent Passenger Registration Program (STEP) that would make it easier to find their location in an emergency abroad. Americans who cannot leave Iran are advised to find a safe place in their residence or another safe building and to carry food, water, medicine and other essential items with them. At certain intervals, the Iranian government has limited access to the mobile internet network and physical phone lines, the embassy said, adding that U.S. citizens should be prepared for internet network outages and develop alternative network connectivity and communication plans. "American-Iranian dual citizens must leave Iran with an Iranian passport and before leaving Iran, they must be ready to face checkpoints and be interrogated by Iranian authorities," the embassy said. "The state of the Iranian government Dual citizenship does not recognize and will treat American-Iranian dual citizens only as Iranian citizens. US nationals in Iran are at significant risk of interrogation, arrest, and detention. Showing a US passport or proving a connection with the United States is sufficient reason for the arrest of a person by the Iranian authorities." "US passports may be confiscated in Iran," it continued. "American-Iranian dual citizens should consider that in their Iranian passport, they will receive the necessary visas for the countries they will pass through on their return trip to the United States, so that in case of confiscation of their American passport, they can use [their] Iranian passport in Iran. These people can then apply for a new US passport in the country they will pass through." U.S. citizens who reside in Iran with a permanent residence visa, regardless of how long they are staying, must obtain an exit permit when departing Iran, the embassy said, noting that all Iranian passport holders are required to pay exit fees.
