Madurai got connected to one more city by air as Andhra Pradesh-based regional carrier Air Costa on Thursday launched its daily flight services to Vijayawada with stopovers at Chennai and Hyderabad.
R. Pramod, Vice-President, Commercial, Air Costa, told The Hindu that while the inaugural flight, an Embraer E-Jet, landed with 63 passengers at 6.05 p.m., the outbound flight took off with 53 passengers at 6.25 p.m.
Morning flight soon“Having launched the evening flight from Madurai, we will begin operating morning flights to Vijayawada via Chennai and Hyderabad from August 1,” he added.
Madurai is already connected by air to Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. With the introduction of the new service, the number of cities with which Madurai is connected goes up to five.
As per the Air Costa schedule, the flight will take off from Madurai at 6.25 p.m. and reach Chennai at 7.25 p.m. It will leave Chennai at 7.45 p.m. to reach Hyderabad at 8.35 p.m. and finally land at Vijayawada at 9.30 p.m.
The airliner operates 36 daily flights to nine destinations, including Madurai, across the country.
According to travel agents, Madurai-Chennai fare for economy class starts from Rs.1,888, and business class starts from Rs.10,000.
Airport Controller K. Sangiah Pandian, president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry N. Jegadeesan, representatives of Travel Club, including N. Sriram, were present at the inaugural function.
The airline commenced scheduled services in October 2013. It operates Embraer E-Jets among tier-one and tier-two cities.
