Air Sahara to fly to 14 new routes

Air Sahara, whose ranking took a hit after a failed takeover deal, on Thursday announced operations to 14 new destinations including two international routes by December as part of plans to have the largest network and a market share of 12-13 per cent by next year.

"The expansion plan begins from Friday and will continue till December 16. During this time, we would be introducing flights to Guanghou (China) and Maldives on the international sector and would connect Delhi with Port Blair," Air Sahara president Alok Sharma said.

Admitting that the market share had dipped in the recent times, Sharma said with the addition of new destinations, the airlines was aiming to regain its earlier share of 12-13 per cent by next year.

He said the airlines would be operating a daily flight to Maldives through Colombo, besides connecting Dhaka as well on the international sector and strengthening its metro network by increasing flights to Kolkata and Hyderabad. With this expansion plan, Air Sahara would be connecting Delhi to six international destinations in addition to its code-share flights with American Airlines, Sharma said.

Asked whether the permission had been granted by the authorities concerned, Sharma said it had applied for approvals three weeks back and there was no restriction from the government.

While the tentative schedule to fly to the Chinese city was November 7, it was October 31 for Maldives, he said and added that Air Sahara would be the first one to apply once Pakistan allowed operations of private airliners.

Referring to resumption of its London service, Sharma said, "We have lost the slot and we will be again approaching the Heathrow airport for a fresh one."

Air Sahara had stopped its flight and surrendered the slot after reaching a deal to merge the airline with Jet Airways in January. However, the agreement was called off in June this year.

Asked whether the airline had sufficient funds to connect so many destinations, Sharma said: "These investments were made in 2005 and now they are only being executed... its time to reap dividends."

"We also plan to consolidate on flying more to mini metros like Chandigarh, Indore, Bhopal, Vadodra, Raipur and Nagpur and tourist destinations like Jodhpur, Khajuraho, Port Blair, Trivandrum and Udaipur," the Air Sahara President said, adding this would give the airline the rare distinction of flying to 27 domestic sectors from Delhi.

On whether the airline had sufficient number of pilots and aircraft to engage itself in such a huge network, Sharma said, "We have 27 aircraft including 18 new generation Boeing and two more Boeing 737-800 are coming by September 21.

"As far as pilots are concerned, 50 per cent of those who had resigned in the aftermath of the merger with Jet Airways, have resumed their duties with us and more were expected to come back," he said.

He said the load factor of the airline had also increased from 60 per cent to 78 per cent subsequent to the deal with Jet Airways falling through.