AirAsia launches daily flights to Jaipur, Chandigarh

Entering the North Indian aviation market, no-frill carrier AirAsia India today launched its direct daily flights from Bangalore to Jaipur and Chandigarh.

The new airline was so far operating flights from Bangalore to Chennai, Kochi and Goa and vice versa.

Both the launch flights to Jaipur and Chandigarh carried 180 passengers, signifying a 100 per cent flight load, an airline spokesperson said, adding that the flights were given a grand welcome with a water salute on landing at the two North Indian airports.

AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya said, "We are very excited to have Jaipur and Chandigarh on our network, as guests will now be able to connect conveniently to these cities from Bangalore."

Chandilya, who was in Jaipur on the Bangalore-Jaipur launch flight, said both the cities have great potential to expand and hence the airline has set aggressive targets and beginning of flights to the two new routes was a part of the business strategy.

"The cities have good potential for business. Tourism is high in Jaipur. The initial response is good and we hope to get a good passenger load," he told reporters.He said that the airline was focusing on smaller cities having good population and infrastructure to expand its network.

"We are in conversation with the government in Rajasthan to plan flight to other cities including Udaipur," he said.

"Our dream of making air travel affordable for every Indian has begun to come true. We are committed to offer a truly relevant and high valued travel experience to all our passengers," Chandilya said.

AirAsia India operates two Airbus A320-200 which are in all-economy configuration having 180 seats.

The airline, a 49:30:21 joint venture of Malaysian carrier AirAsia, Tata Sons and Telestra Tradeplace, has plans to have six A320s by December and 14 by March next year.