 "Jet Airways, SpiceJet add 'red eye' flights")
Domestic airlines are increasing frequencies and adding new red eye flights (wee hour flights) in their winter schedules.
On Thursday Jet Airways and SpiceJet announced new frequencies including the red eye flights. SpiceJet will operate red eye flights four times a week between Delhi and Bengaluru and twice a week between Delhi and Nanded (Maharashtra).
Jet Airways will operate late night flights between Chennai-Kolkata and Chennai-Mumbai.
IndiGo has also added a red eye flight between Mumbai-Delhi from Friday.
Red eye flights have lower fares during day time flights and hence attract budget travellers and also those connecting from international destinations.
Along with red eye flights Jet Airways announced introduction of new routes (from Vishakhapatnam to Delhi and Mumbai, Jammu-Srinagar and Chennai-Kolkata). The airline will also fly a wide body 254 seater Airbus A330 aircraft on Mumbai-Delhi route in the winter schedule.
"Red-eye is a popular concept in the west as they generally tend to be more economical than the day-time flights. More so night flights are a smart option to business and other frequent travellers as they can conveniently attend their business meetings and take a late-night flight back thus avoiding road traffic during peak hours. We are in a process of adding close to half a dozen red-eye flights in the coming winter schedule as they serve our objective of boosting connectivity 24x7," said Ajay Jasra - General Manager (Corporate Affairs), SpiceJet.
Gaurang Shetty, senior vice president (commercial), Jet Airways said, "The Indian domestic sector is witnessing a robust growth in demand. Jet Airways has always been responsive to market conditions and provided enhanced travel options to our guests. The new flights and additional frequencies in our winter schedule will further strengthen our robust domestic network, while offering our guests additional choice and flexibility to plan their travel. We are happy to introduce the A330-200 wide body aircraft between Delhi and Mumbai to provide additional connectivity on this key route."