When the first flight of Spicejet took off from Madurai for New Delhi on Monday, it made history by connecting the Temple City with the Capital for the first time.
The inaugural flight took off with 182 passengers, including 100 passengers bound for New Delhi, Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan told reporters.
Madurai is the 20th destination to be covered by the low-fare airline which also commenced its Madurai-Mumbai daily flight service. The Madurai-Mumbai and Madurai-New Delhi flight services would touch down at Chennai in both directions.
Passengers from Mumbai would get a day return service to Madurai, Mr. Sridharan said.
Director Kishore Gupta said that Spicejet would launch its first international flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu on October 7. The airline that had recently completed its fifth year of domestic operation would also commence its Chennai-Colombo service on October 9.
Currently, operating 147 daily flights with 22 aircraft, Spicejet would raise the fleet strength to 28 by March 2011. By December 2011, it will add another six aircraft.
Another director, B.S. Kansagra, said that Spicejet would double its fleet in two years.
The airline would soon start cargo transportation from Madurai, Mr. Sridharan said. Spicejet had carried 65 lakh passengers last year and is expected to increase the number to 85 lakh this year. The on-time service of flight had been in the range of 75 to 80 per cent, on par with global standard of the industry, he added.
Flight No. SG 304 would take off from Madurai at 10.25 a.m. and land at Chennai at 11.25 a.m. and reach New Delhi at 3 p.m. Flight No. SG 303 would take off from Delhi at 1.35 p.m. After a touch down at Chennai it would leave Chennai at 4.55 p.m. and reach Madurai at 5.55 p.m.
Flight No. SG 296 would leave Madurai at 6.25 p.m. and reach Chennai 7.25 p.m. before landing at Mumbai at 9.50 p.m. Flight No. SG 291 would leave Mumbai at 6.05 a.m. After landing at Chennai, it would take off from Chennai at 8.40 a.m. and reach Madurai at 9.40 a.m.
