Jet's Chandigarh-Delhi flight now to take a morning take-off

Pursuing its expansion plans and to provide easy access to metros, Jet Airways will start morning flights from Chandigarh to Delhi.

Currently, it operates from Chandigarh Airport in the afternoon. Moreover, the company is also planning to start the Chandigarh-Mumbai flight from next month.

Software and other professionals working in Chandigarh have for long been asking for an increase in the frequency of flights.

This was disclosed by Jet Air CEO Mahiar M Sabri, who accompanied Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh when the latter inaugurated the first Amritsar-London direct flight by Jet Airways from Amritsar Airport.

With this flight, the private sector carrier follows in the footsteps of Air India in tapping the burgeoning air travel market in Punjab.

On the occasion, Amarinder Singh said, "The state government has got the nod from the Centre to set up another International Airport at the Halwara Air Force Base. We will extend all support to the civil aviation ministry in the acquisition of land for the new airport."

Commenting on the selection of the location, he said, "We had selected Halwara, because Ludhiana is a commercial centre. The state government would share this airport with air force.

Moreover, he said, "With the Governor of the state, S F Rodrigues keen to develop Chandigarh Airport, very soon Punjab would be on global map with three airports and it would help the Punjabi diaspora to a large extent to access the foreign countries and also the carriers. Moreover it would help in boosting medical and also, tourism in the state, thus increasing the economy of the state."

When asked if the current infrastructure at Amritsar International Airport is ready to tackle the traffic, he added with operation of new terminal, which is coming up, it can handle almost double traffic.

Earlier, expressing his views, Jet Airways, CEO, Wolfgang Prock Schauer, said, "Punjab has huge potential, and a big market for the carriers. There is huge potential in Punjab and we hope 140,000 passengers would travel by Jet Airways on this route annually."

Commenting upon the investment on expansion plans, he said, "We would be investing $ 2.5 billion for various expansion programmes like acquiring new aircrafts in next three years. We are planning to take the aircraft tally to 90 by the end of 2009. Currently, the company has fleet of 55 aircrafts."

Jet Airways also plans to launch a Delhi-Singapore flight from September 6. Jet already operates to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Colombo from Chennai and to Kathmandu from Delhi.

He further added by September this year, we would start Chandigarh-Mumbai flight. "We plan to operate to US and increase daily flights between India and would like to connect Birmingham, Manchestar," said Schauer.

Commenting upon threats from low cost airlines, he said, "In India they can't be called as low cost, but low fare is appropriate. 80 per cent of the airline cost are dependent on the business model. The cost differential is far less in India because there is not much legacy in India. The landing charges remain the same. Moreover, the market share of these low cost airlines will be much lower."