Low cost carrier IndiGo has announced launch of its flight services from Rajamahendravaram to Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru starting December 22.
Speaking to The Hindu on Thursday, Sanjay Kumar, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo said, “There will be two flights from Rajamahndravaram to Hyderabad daily and one direct daily flight each to Bengaluru and Chennai.” The airliner’s brand new ATR 72-600 aircraft and 149 Airbus A320 fleet will be utilised to connect the place to the key metros of the country according to him.
IndiGo, via Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, will also be connecting Rajamahendravaram to Jaipur, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Pune, Mangalore, Goa, Singapore and Muscat among others, according to the airliner.
While Visakhapatnam is already connected to major cities in the country, the company had announced plans to connect Tirupati and Vijayawada to the national network of routes by January 2018.
DGCA notice to IndiGo
A day after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) show-cause notice issued on the ‘Delhi passenger manhandling’ episode, Mr. Sanjay said he came to know about it this morning through media. For record, the Aviation regulator DGCA has issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo on Wednesday asking for an explanation on the Delhi airport incident in which the IndiGo staff manhandled a flight passenger on October 15.
Speaking to The Hindu over phone, Mr. Sanjay said, “I came to know about the show-cause notice issued by DGCA today morning through media.” He, however, refused to comment on the notice further.
Responding on the ‘Delhi manhandling issue,’ and the safety measures taken up by the airliner, he said, “The issue is behind us. We transport over 1.5 lakh passengers a day and not all of them are happy.” IndiGo has flown over 200 million passengers the last eleven years of operation. With 150 aircraft fleet and 1,000 flights a day, the airliner commands over 40% market share according to him.
Cheaper fares
Speaking about the future of regional airlines and fares, the Chief Commercial Officer said the fares may come down in the days to come.
“Better cost management and more frequency of flights may bring down the airfares. We are connecting into deeper India with ATRs,” Mr. Sanjay said. He claims that the customers are looking for availability of flights and reliability of operations.
