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AirAsia India will start operations on June 12 with a flight connecting Bangalore and Goa at a fare of ₹990. Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia, said online booking started on Friday at 9.30 p.m. .
“It’s a very attractive route and the right one to start our operations with,” he told newspersons.
Tony Fernandez, CEO, AirAsia, will be on the inaugural flight, Chandilya said.
The low-cost airline plans to connect Bangalore with Chennai, for which bookings start on June 20.
The airline has set up its base in Chennai, but may shift to Bangalore.
“We are bullish about India and we are starting the service at the right time. We will break even in four months. We are looking at around 60 per cent load factor,” he said. The new domestic airline is a joint venture between AirAsia, Tata Group and the Arun Bhatia-promoted Telestra Tradeplace.
The airline will have other revenue streams, such as in-flight advertisement, and food and merchandise sales on its Airbus A320 aircraft.
Hot seats There will not be any differences in the seat category, but there will be some ‘hot seats’ that cost more as they offer more leg space, he said.
On the benchmark for the air-fares, he said: “We try to match railway’s first-class AC fare.”
By the end of the financial year, the airline will connect 10 cities and will have 10 aircraft.
Mumbai and Delhi are not on the airline’s radar because of high airport charges.
The airline has around 300 employees. Managing each aircraft requires an average of 80 people, he said
Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra.com , said: “We expect AirAsia’s entry to catalyse growth in the domestic air market which has been sluggish for the past couple of years, and are looking forward to the ripple effect its entry will create in the next few months.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday, SpiceJet announced a special promotional fare on Bangalore-Goa-Bangalore and Bangalore-Chennai-Bangalore routes by offering tickets priced at ₹1,499, excluding statutory taxes.
This offer is for travel dates from June 12 onwards, the same day that AirAsia India is launching its maiden flight from Bangalore to Goa.
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