Air Sahara to add 66 new flights, 14 new destinations

New Delhi, Aug 17: Air Sahara said today it will add 66 new flights and 14 new destinations in the next four months, connecting international cities like Guangzhou in China, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Male in the Maldives and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Within the country, it will fly to second tier cities like Chandigarh, Indore, Bhopal, Vadodara, Raipur and Nagpur as well.

The airline is also targetting tourist destinations like Jodhpur, Khajuraho, Port Blair, Trivandrum and Udaipur. In continuation to its earlier programme, Air Sahara will also have maximum flights on Delhi-Hyderabad and Delhi-Kolkata routes.

''We're back to our normal operations,'' said its president Alok Sharma, weeks after an acquisition plan by Jet Airways fell through.

''The confidence among employees and passengers in the airline has returned.'' About 35 pilots -- among the highest paid in the industry -- had resigned before Jet began to wriggle out of the buyout deal. Sahara alleged that Jet was looking for a price cut from the agreed Rs 2,300 crore to Rs 1,800 crore.

Both companies are now locked in a bitter legal battle.

Mr Sharma said 17 pilots have taken back their resignations. More are likely to return in the next week to ten days. ''We also plan to increase our aircraft utilisation from 7.5 hours to about 11 hours per day.'' The international destinations will be connected from winter schedule (October-end). All these will be operated by existing Boeing B737-800 planes.

Air Sahara is also getting two more new aircrafts on lease -- one on August 24 and the other on September 21. At present, it has 18 new generation B737-700 and 800 besides classics 737-300 and 400.

The fleet also includes seven CRJ-200s and four helicopters.

However, the status of Air Sahara's London flights remains uncertain with its Heathrow (LHR) slots being suspended due to operational takeover by Jet.

Jet's acquisition plan went haywire five months after the biggest deal in Indian civil aviation sector was announced. After operating Sahara for some time, Jet was apparently unhappy with its liabilities and sought a discount on the deal.

There were reports that Sahara's balance sheet indicates a financial mess. Air Sahara declined and refused to renegotiate the price, sparking the war which has moved from boardroom to courtroom.

Air Sahara has a share of seven to eight per cent in the booming air travel market with new low-cost airlines coming up every few months.

UNI