The Hindu Business Line : SpiceJet plans more flights, tie-ups with hotels

Pune, Sept 21 Additional flights in its existing routes, package deals with the hospitality segment and may be a foray into international routes. This is the roadmap that low cost airline SpiceJet has chalked out for itself for the current year.

Talking to presspersons, Mr Kamal Hingorani, Vice-President, Marketing and Planning, SpiceJet, said October would see the airline starting flights from Pune to Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

He said Pune-Chennai would be daily direct flights, Pune-Hyderabad (except Tuesday) and Pune-Ahmedabad would be every Tuesday. He said there would be four departures and four arrivals. He said the inaugural fares would be Rs 1,699 for the Pune-Chennai route and Rs 799 for the Pune-Hyderabad route, excluding taxes.

The Pune-Ahmedabad route was a relaunch as the airline had discontinued it as it had been a night slot.

The airline also plans flights from Chennai and Kolkata to Port Blair. There are also plans to connect Pune to Kochi and Goa.

These flights would be launched after the Pune airport resurfacing was completed, expected around March 2008.

Mr Hingorani said the airline had reduced its flights on the Delhi-Mumbai route from six to one.

Mr Hingorani said the airline is in talks with the hospitality segment in Goa and Kochi. SpiceJet plans to tie-up with three- and four-star hotels. Mr Hingorani said currently the airline was only targeting the stand-alone hotels in these cities for now. These packages are expected to be launched in three months, he said.

International flights

Mr Hingorani said the airline was awaiting Government’s approval for beginning its international flights. He said the airline has identified West Asia and South East Asia to kickstart its international operations. He said the locations in South East Asia would probably be Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore while the foremost location in West Asia would be Dubai.

He said the airline was not targeting outward bound flights from Delhi or Mumbai but from the tier II cities such as Ahmedabad, Pune and Coimbatore as there was demand from these locations. He said that these would be point-to-point flights.

He said the airline would be bringing in the 737-900 ER (extended range) into its fold and the first aircraft would join its fleet in November 2007 and the second one by end of December.