SpiceJet, the second low-cost carrier in the country in terms of passengers carried and market share, recently announced the introduction of direct flights from Kozhikode and Amritsar to Dubai. These services will start from 15 November, 2015, and flight booking for these routes began on 5 October, 2015. To know more about these new flights and various SpiceJet offers, travellers can visit the websites of the leading online travel agencies in the country.
Flight Schedule
The airline will operate flights from Amritsar to Dubai on all days, except Saturdays. In case of Kozhikode, the flights will operate on all days of the week. The flight from Amritsar will depart from 11:30 and reach the destination at 13:55 while the flight back to Amritsar will depart from Dubai at 5:00 and reach here at 9:35. In case of Kozhikode flights, the departure time is 1:05 and arrival time is 3:55. Besides this daily flight, there are other flights from this southern Indian city to Dubai at different times, across the week.
Special Introductory Fare
The introductory fare for these new flights has been set at INR 4999 (all inclusive) for one-way. With the launch of these two new services, the airline has increased the count of Indian city connections to Dubai to 8. Cities that are already connected to Dubai by this carrier are Pune, Madurai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kochi and Delhi. Dubai is among the 6 international destinations catered by this airline. Though services to Kathmandu had been stopped temporarily, it is likely that the flight tickets to the Nepal capital will be made available soon. Additionally, the carrier has plans to expand its network internationally, along with increasing its daily flights in the upcoming winter schedule.
Winter Schedule Announcement
With the winter and festive season round the corner, SpiceJet is all set to make its daily flights count from 250 to 291, by adding 22 connecting flights, 30 new frequencies and 10 new sectors. In another announcement, the company stated that it will add 6 new aircraft to its existing fleet. The plan to induct new aircraft in the fleet is part of the overall strategy to meet the winter schedule flight tickets demand, and also offer travellers the convenience of choosing from a number of flights.
The increase in frequencies of its flights will be on multiples routes, such as Delhi-Kolkata, Mumbai-Kochi, Chennai-Madurai, Mumbai-Chennai, Kolkata-Agartala and Hyderabad-Mumbai, among others. The newly added sectors, which commenced from 25 October, 2015, are Mumbai-Varanasi, Ahmedabad-Goa and Varanasi-Hyderabad. On the other hand, the new connecting routes added include Ahmedabad-Coimbatore, Delhi-Madurai, Pune-Srinagar and Mumbai-Madurai, among others. With network expansion programme, the airline is trying to reach the tier II and III cities to cash in on the tourism potential of these places.
Speaking on these recent developments, a spokesperson from the airline said that they are making quick progress on the growth path by expanding their network, offering increased flight frequencies and better timings. This way they are trying to increase their growth capacity by 16 per cent. All the new additions to the network for the winter schedule will add depth to their existing operations as more and more travellers are likely to plan their journeys for the holidays and festive season in the coming months.
Be it the start of direct flights to Dubai from Amritsar and Kozhikode to winter schedule announcement and induction of new aircraft to the fleet, SpiceJet is making all efforts to make a mark in this current fiscal year. The plans are out and the execution has been done, but only time will tell whether the airline will be able to achieve the success it enjoyed in the previous two quarters. With other domestic carriers trying to woo customers with their cheap air tickets, this airline will face tough challenges from all quarters.