NEW DELHI: SpiceJet, the country's low-cost domestic carrier, is gearing up to offer new connections in Southern region.

Come November 14, the airline will launch its Delhi-Hyderabad-Chennai flights. It is also offering a daily flight to Chennai from Mumbai.

SpiceJet Director Ajay Singh told The Hindu here that the carrier would also begin a service to Chennai from Kolkata. The Kolkata-Chennai flight would be routed through Hyderabad. "We are criss-crossing the country in an unconventional manner. Our aim is to provide flights to the travelling public from each of the cities big or small and that is the reason behind our selecting unusual routes," Mr. Singh said.

He said the airline also became the first low-cost carrier to offer Delhi-Pune-Bangalore and Ahmedabad-Bangalore connections. "As a low-cost carrier, we have to constantly evaluate new routes and innovate," Mr. Singh added.

He claimed that all sectors of the no-frills airline were enjoying a high seat occupancy since it began operations in May this year. "Our load factors are touching 90 per cent or more on all the routes. Responding to the public demand, we even operated Delhi-Goa flight during off-season as well and clocked impressive load factors."

Yet another first as the low-cost carrier is inauguration of flights to Jammu and Srinagar from Delhi. Mr. Singh said the Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar flight would offer convenient connection to people travelling either to Jammu or the Valley.

Drawing a parallel with the telecom sector where the number of mobile phones has grown from 30 lakhs in 2001 to 6.5 crores today, Mr. Singh said already stressed and inadequate airport infrastructure would have no other option but to expand to keep pace with the growth in the aviation sector.

With five leased Boeing 737-800 aircraft in its fleet, SpiceJet is looking for its own, brand new B-737-800 plane to be inducted in January 2006.

"We are keen on developing Kolkata as our hub for flights to the far-flung North-East. Our response in Kolkata has been great and we look forward to launching more flights from there as soon as we get more aircraft," he said.

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