GoAir to start new routes next week

New Delhi, Mar 31 (UNI) Low-cost carrier GoAir today announced new routes from next week connecting Mumbai, Delhi, Srinagar, Jammu and Chennai.

From 20 flights a day, the number will go up to 28 covering 14 cities from April 3. Currently, it connects Mumbai, Goa, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Baroda, Chennai, Pune, Cochin and Jaipur.

The new routes are: Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Srinagar, Srinagar-Jammu and Chennai-Delhi. ''If the price paid for a ticket bought on a competing airline is lower than the price paid for the GoAir ticket, then we'll refund double the difference alongwith cancellation charges,'' said managing director Jeh Wadia.

GoAir started operations on November 4 last year. It has a current fleet of three leased 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft.

It plans to have eight planes in first year of operations, another 10 in second year and 15 more in third year. So it will have a total of 33 aircraft in first three years.

GoAir has placed 1.6 billion dollar order for 20 A320s - 10 confirmed and 10 options. Mr Wadia said the airline will come up with initial public offering (IPO) of stock sales by end of fiscal 2007-08 to fund further expansion plans.

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