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Kingfisher launches new flights

CHANDIGARH: With a bhangra troupe breaking into a boisterous jig to offer a traditional welcome to passengers at Chandigarh airport, Kingfisher Airlines achieved another landmark by beginning operations from Delhi to this City Beautiful. The first flight of Kingfisher Airlines (IT 600) from New Delhi landed at Chandigarh at 10-15 a.m. on Monday and was received by Punjab Governor and Administrator of the Union Territory of Punjab General (Retd) S. F. Rodrigues.

The aircraft later took off for Mumbai marking the launch of daily direct services of the airline from Chandigarh to the financial capital of the country. There will be a Kingfisher flight daily from Delhi to Chandigarh and then Mumbai and in the evening it will take the same route back to Delhi. “We did an economic evaluation and this new route appeared very viable to us. We believe that this route will initiate a lot of travel, both business and leisure. It is because of this reason that we chose Kingfisher (instead of Deccan that has now been merged with Kingfisher Airlines) to serve this route,” said Siva Ramachandran, Vice-President (Global Sales) of Kingfisher Airlines, talking to reporters at Chandigarh airport.

The launch of this new route assumes significance ahead of the holiday season with Chandigarh offering access to cooler climes of Kasauli, Shimla and other holiday getaways in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

“We are expecting about 70 per cent occupancy in our flights. We have future plans for other stations, like for example Trichy, which we will serve in addition to Deccan,” Mr. Ramachandran added.

The airline on Monday began services on five other new routes as well.

For the first time, it will now offer a daily direct flight between Delhi and Goa. It has also added one more daily direct flight between Delhi and Hyderabad, taking the total number of daily flights on that route to three per day.

A daily flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was also launched on Monday and the airline started flights between Chennai and Coimbatore as well.

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