The Hindu Business Line : Jet, Sahara to expand to more SAARC nations

THERE is good news for both international and domestic air travellers. Close on the heels of announcing the launch of operations from Chennai to Colombo, Jet Airways and Air Sahara are looking at operating to more countries in the six-nation South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

"Jet Airways has filed for being allowed to operate flights to Kathmandu and Dhaka. While the flight to Kathmandu will be from Delhi, the Dhaka flight will be from Kolkata. Both the flights will be daily operations," the Chief Operating Officer, Mr Peter Luethi, told newspersons here.

Similarly, Air Sahara's Chief Executive Officer, Mr U.K. Bose, said the airline would look at operating flights to Kathmandu.

The two senior airline representatives were in the capital for a conference on aviation organised by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

On the issue of the airline launching more flights to Colombo, Mr Bose said that Air Sahara would look at launching a service from Bangalore.

"Bangalore will be the second city after Chennai from which Air Sahara will launch services to Colombo," Mr Bose said. While Air Sahara is to launch a daily flight on the Chennai-Colombo sector from March 22, Jet Airways is set to launch its daily flight on the same sector the next day.

It is not, however, only the international market which will see Indian carriers adding more flights. The country's low-cost airline, Air Deccan, not only plans to launch flights on trunk routes but also provide air connectivity between cities in north India.

"We plan to launch services from Delhi to Dehradun, Kulu, Shimla, Jullundur and Ludhiana. Besides, we will also be providing a flight on the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur sector," the airlines Managing Director, Captain G.R. Gopinath, said. The airline hopes to launch the new flights in north India from June this year.

Air Deccan has already announced that it plans to launch flights between the various metro cities from the beginning of July this year. The airline hopes to acquire the first of the three Airbus A-320 aircraft towards the middle of June this year.

However, Captain Gopinath felt that it would be wrong to say that the decision of the airline to launch flights between the metro routes, could lead to a price war.

Earlier, addressing the CAPA conference, the Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines, Mr Sunil Arora, called for providing a level playing field for the state-owned airlines, including looking at divesting the airlines. Interestingly, this is one of the recommendations that have been put forward by the Naresh Chandra Committee, which had been set up by the Government to suggest ways for making air travel more affordable.