The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan plans non-stop Delhi-Chennai flight

AIR Deccan, the low-cost airline, is in expansion mode. The Bangalore-based airline plans to offer non-stop flights not only between Chennai and Delhi soon but also expand its services to north India from next month.

The airline's Managing Director, Captain G.R. Gopinath, told Business Line that Air Deccan hoped to offer non-stop flights between Chennai and Delhi and between Chennai and Mumbai within the next week to 10 days.

"We will be offering 75 per cent of the seats on the Chennai-Delhi sector in the price range of Rs 500 and Rs 5,500," Capt Gopinath said. Currently, the airline offers a connection between Delhi and Chennai through Hyderabad. Besides, the airline also plans to offer a link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

When questioned on the airline's response to almost all other domestic airlines also offering lower rate tickets on their flights, Capt Gopinath merely said that Air Deccan offered more seats at the lower rates than what was being offered by its competitors.

Officials noted that the manner in which other domestic airlines have reacted to the pricing initiative of Air Deccan showed that they were "panicking".

Meanwhile, the airline is hopeful of getting at least two more smaller ATR aircraft by the end of this month so that it can launch flights from Delhi to the smaller cities in north India.

"Both the ATR aircraft, which we expect to receive shortly, will be stationed in Delhi. We have already signed up for the two aircraft. We will use these aircraft to launch flights from Delhi to Dehra Dun, Jaipur and Kanpur, among other cities in north India," Capt Gopinath said.

The induction of the two ATR aircraft will see the airline offering 70 flights-a-day on its network with these smaller aircraft alone. The airline also has a fleet of Airbus A-320 aircraft, which ply on the domestic trunk routes.