The Hindu Business Line : Delhi-Chicago flight — American Airlines ties up with Air Sahara

PROMOTIONAL FARES: Mr Athar Khan (left), Managing Director, Asia Pacific, American Airlines, and Mr K. Damodaran, Senior Vice-President, Sales, Air Sahara, exchaging documents after signing an agreement in the Capital on Friday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Oct. 14

AMERICAN Airlines on Friday signed a code-share agreement with Air Sahara for the daily non-stop flight it will operate between Delhi and Chicago from November 17.

The airline has announced a special promotional return fare of Rs 38,000, which is about Rs 7,000 less than the current fares being charged, for travel between most cities here and Chicago. The promotional fare is available for travel between November 17 and February 28 next year. However, the special promotional return fare will not be available for travel between December 16 this year and January 15, 2006.

The promotional fare will be valid for travel from several domestic cities, a senior Air Sahara official added. "Passengers travelling from most metro cities to take the flight to Chicago will not be charged more than the promotional fare. However, those travelling from some cities will be charged a small amount for the flight to Delhi," the Senior Vice-President Sales, Air Sahara, Mr K. Damodaran, said.

The start of the flight will cut the travel time between India and the US.

"While it takes a passenger about 17 hours 45 minutes to reach Chicago on Air India, the same journey on Lufthansa takes about 18 hours 45 minutes. However, on our flight the journey will be completed in less than 16 hours," the American Airlines Managing Director, Asia and Pacific, Mr Athar Khan, said.

The code share agreement will enable American Airlines passengers to make easy connections throughout India using the network of Air Sahara while travellers from various parts of the country will be able to connect to destinations not only within the US but also in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Asked on what impact the proposal of Air Sahara to sell a stake in the airline would have on the tie-up, Mr Khan said that AA will "re-evaluate" it at the time the sale took place.

Meanwhile, Air Sahara hopes to not only launch direct flights to the UK from December 14 but is also looking to expand its network in the Far East by the middle of next year. "We hope to launch flights to the UK by December 14. In the pipeline are flights between Delhi and Hong Kong. Besides we are also looking at operating to Shanghai, Tokyo and perhaps to one more European destination," Mr Damodaran said.

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