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Time to fly high

Indian Railways may offer air-conditioned berths at low cost coupled with good ambience but even today, flyingin an aeroplane is like a dream come true for many in this country. To fulfil the dreams of such people, InterGlobe Enterprises and Rakesh Gangwal, one of the promoters and founders of InterGlobe, have launched India's newest low-fare domestic carrier, IndiGo. The launch was formalised at Maurya Sheraton in New Delhi this week.

Started with an aim to "have the lowest cost structure in the industry", IndiGo plans to attract the large number of middle class, who can't afford an air-travel and prefer to use trains even at the cost of time. The price range starts from Rs 2,549 for Delhi to Guwahati and Rs 1,749 for Delhi to Pune. IndiGo aims to spread its wings to most of the Indian cities and has no plans of to expand itself beyond India. To begin with, it is starting its services in seven to eight major cities in the first phase, which includes Delhi, Guwahati, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Take off

And within five years, it plans to cover at least 33 cities. Its first flight is scheduled to take off this Friday. The same aircraft will continue to fly till Imphal. It will fly on this route with a brand new Airbus A-320 aircraft. On 10 August, it will start yet another non-stop daily service between Delhi and Pune. The same flight will continue till Bangalore. Further, it will add one new Airbus A-320 aircraft each month through 2006. Speaking on the occasion, the CEO of IndiGo, Bruce Ashby, said there is a lot of opportunity for the growth of aviation industry in India. "Compared to the greater demand, there are only a handful of low-fare aeroplanes in India," he said. Commenting on the departure delays and other problems common to low-fare aeroplanes, he said, "No airline is 100 per cent on time. We have assimilated best of the industry and put all our efforts added with local ideas to deliver the best. Our USP itself is `affordable price, being on time and stress-free travel' ". "It's a fallacy that low cost planes are always late. Even international flights are late many times," defended Gangwal.

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