Finally, intra-Gujarat flights take wing

AHMEDABAD: Come Christmas, honchos wanting fly across Gujarat will get wings. SpiceJet will start operating intra-state flights connecting Ahmedabad and Surat with Saurashtra and Kutch. The launch is being timed with Rannotsav, the annual desert festival organised by the state government in Kutch. The Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd has approved the project.

The company plans to fly 78-seater, Q400 aircraft. Functional airports in Ahmedabad, Surat, Porbandar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Keshod, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Vadodara will be linked gradually. Ahmedabad and Surat will be made the hubs, connecting other centres. The company may fix a basic fare for a one-hour flight at Rs 2,400. Kamal Hingorani, vicepresident, SpiceJet said, "We have acquired 30 aircraft exclusively for connecting Tier II and Tier III cities across the country. Gujarat is an important market."

According to him, the airlines has started intra-state operations in Andhra Pradesh. The planes are running at 85 per cent occupancy. He further said that the basic fare cost for a one-hour flight was around Rs 2,400. Earlier, Deccan Charters Ltd, Luan Airways and Ventura Airlines had announced daily flights connecting important destinations in Gujarat. However, the plans have not yet materialisedDCL's plan hit a roadblock when the Director General of Civil Aviation did not approve of the lease agreement under which the company had sought to procure three 60-seater aircraft from Denmark.