The Hindu Business Line : Skies open up over the sub-continent

Air Sahara's CEO, Mr U. K. Bose, playing host to passengers on the inaugural Delhi-Colombo flight... Air Sahara will use the opportunity to tie up with airlines in the region and provide passengers onward connections.

THE domestic private sector airlines — Jet Airways and Air Sahara — may only have been allowed to operate to the seven SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) countries, but the little window of opportunity provides them the option of carrying passengers beyond the region.

At a press conference in Colombo shortly after the landing of the first commercial flight of Air Sahara to Sri Lanka, the airline's Chief Executive Officer, Mr U. K. Bose, said the airline has tied up with the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific to provide onward connections to the Far East and the United States.

Air Sahara is also looking for a tie-up with another airline to provide greater connectivity to passengers.

The decision to allow the domestic airlines to start operating to Sri Lanka was announced in a joint communiqué issued last October at the conclusion of the visit of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The communiqué talked about encouraging India's private airlines to operate to Sri Lanka. However, the Union Cabinet in January allowed the airlines not only to operate to Sri Lanka but the entire SAARC region.

In effect, the decision means that the Indian private airlines have been given the nod to fly from India to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan and Bhutan. In addition, the Indo-Sri Lankan communiqué also granted the sixth freedom rights to the airline, that is, the right to pick passengers from a point which is not the country where the airline operates from and transport them to a third country.

Picking on the opportunity provided to them, the Indian private airlines, as also the national airline of Sri Lanka, SriLankan, are keen to promote two-nation tourism. As a step in that direction, SriLankan plans to launch a triangular flight on the Colombo-Kochi-Maldives sector later this year, while Air Sahara has introduced the concept of `one-fare for two countries' in order to promote tourist movement.

SriLankan also plans to start operating direct non-stop flights between Colombo and Bodhgaya. The move is likely to prove popular with Japanese and Korean tourists visiting Sri Lanka an opportunity to visit the famous Buddhist holy place.

At present SriLankan provides a connection between Colombo and Bodhgaya but the flight is routed through Delhi. Similarly, Jet Airways believes that tremendous opportunities exist to promote India and Sri Lanka as joint tourist destinations in all overseas markets.

In addition, SriLankan has also launched a marketing initiative with the Indian tourism authorities to get more tourists from several South East Asian countries to India.

The SriLankan Chief Executive Officer, Mr Peter Hill, confirming these developments to Business Line in Colombo recently, said this marketing initiative would help bring more tourists to India from several South-East Asian countries including Singapore and Malaysia.

Besides, Jet Airways plans to progressively link Bangalore, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram with Colombo by offering seamless service so as to provide more passengers an opportunity to travel to Sri Lanka. Air Sahara plans to offer greater connectivity for passengers from various Indian cities to Sri Lanka. The airlines are also looking at the opportunity of transporting passengers within the SAARC region. With this in mind SriLankan is examining the option of operating from Sri Lanka to India and onwards to Pakistan especially as the airline has traffic rights between Mumbai and Karachi, Mr Hill said.

Similarly, Jet Airways and Air Sahara are exploring the option of launching flights between Delhi and Kathmandu, and Kolkata and Dhaka.

In addition, Air Sahara is looking at the possibility of extending the Colombo flight on to the Maldives.

For the international air passengers wanting to travel to and from India, happier days and flights are just about to begin.

The wait on tarmac

THE first international flight of Air Sahara had to wait its turn before being allowed to fly into the history books.

As the Boeing 737-800 aircraft bearing the call sign VT-SIK readied its engines for take-off at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on March 22 it was literally stopped in its track.

The airline had to wait till at least five other aircraft — including two CRJ aircraft of the airline and one Airbus A-320s of Indian Airlines and two Boeings of competitor Jet Airways — were cleared either for take-off or landing.

Probably in the fitness of things, an old turbo-prop waited patiently behind the Air Sahara aircraft as it took to the skies on the first leg of the 1,580-mile historic journey between Delhi and Chennai.

The aircraft had a short halt at Chennai airport before doing the 650-km hop between Chennai and Colombo and becoming the first Indian private sector airline to operate a commercial flight in the international skies.

History at 11-43 p.m.

IT WAS at 11-43 p.m. on March 22 that Indian aviation history changed irrevocably once again. For that was the moment that the Captain of the Air Sahara flight operating on the Chennai-Colombo sector announced, "We have crossed the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram FIR and now are in Sri Lankan air space."

But before the full impact of the statement could sink in, the Captain also announced: "We have begun our descent into Colombo," even as the various television camera teams on board the historic flight were busy doing face-to-camera shots to record the moment for posterity.