Rajasthan offers aircraft for hire to tourists

The Rajasthan government has decided to offer a helicopter and an aircraft on charter. The Rajasthan Civil Aviation Corporation has on offer the services of two chartered aircraft "" a Beechcraft King aircraft, which can accommodate six passengers, and other an Augusta helicopter, which can offer five seats.

"The step is aimed at boosting tourism in the state because this will not only save commuting time for them but they will be also able to see more places in Rajasthan," an official of the Rajasthan Civil Aviation Corporation said.

The government of Rajasthan operates 14 airstrips and a large number of helipads in the state. Apart from the standard packages to the most popular locations, the chartered flights would give tourists the facility to design their own tour, officials added.

The charges for hiring the aircraft have been fixed at Rs 60,000 an hour and for the helicopter at 125,000 per hour and a minimum of two hours of flying charges would be levied. Moreover, detention charges of Rs 3,000 per hour would be charged after the first four hours that would be free.

Rajasthan is a favourite tourist destination for both domestic as well as foreign tourists. The arrival of foreign tourists to Rajasthan has seen a quantum jump from 428,000 tourists in 2002 to 1.22 million in 2006 "" a quantum growth in a mere three years.

Similarly, the arrival of domestic tourists has also leapfrogged from 830,000 tourists in 2002 to 23.48 million tourists in 2006.

Till October 2007, 17.69 million domestic tourists have already visited Rajasthan. The total spending by all the tourists visiting the state is over Rs 1,000 crore per annum.

Some of the tourism destinations of Rajasthan have become internationally famous and popular such as Palace-on-Wheels, heritage hotels, camel safaris, Pushkar Fair, desert festival, palace hotels and wild life sanctuaries/national parks.

The foreign tourists are mostly from countries like France, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Bangladesh.