Fly to your town: Spicejet to launch services

Hyderabad, April 8 (INN): The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Samshabad will be the first base for the brand new fleet of Bombardier Q-400 NextGen aircraft to be launched by a private airline company, SpiceJet.

The aircraft will be serving Tier-II and Tier-III destinations like Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Goa, Indore, Madurai, Mangalore, Nagpur, Nasik, Raipur, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, and Vijayawada. The Q-400 operations are expected to begin in July 2011.

'The Hyderabad Airport provides state of the art infrastructure support for our plans for the Q-400 aircraft. The South Central location of Hyderabad reduces flying time to any of the regional cities by 15-20 minutes, in comparison to other metros in the South,' said that company's CEO on being asked why the RGIA was chosen as the first base for the new fleet.

'The location advantage of Hyderabad will allow us to explore and develop markets in the west, central and eastern part of the country apart from the strong consumer markets of the south. Hyderabad thus has the potential to become one of the main gateways in India and a key part of our Q-400 operations,' he added.

The Company already has a well developed network in South India with the current B-737 fleet with 18 daily departures ex-Hyderabad and connections to all major Indian cities.

With the expansion of the network to Tier-II and Tier-III cities using the Q-400 NextGen aircraft, the company plans to develop a high frequency and point-to-point to network linking Hyderabad to these cities.

'We believe that the enormous potential in the Indian domestic market can be further tapped by enhancing regional connectivity in the country by focusing on Tier II and Tier III cities. We have selected the Q400 NextGen turboprop aircraft from Bombardier Inc of Canada to facilitate this objective,' the company CEO added.

RGIA has emerged as the preferred destination for both airlines and passengers and is well equipped to handle the additional traffic. The airport has world class infrastructure including adequate parking bays, hydrant based fuel farm and excellent ground handling facilities for the aircraft.

For the passengers, provision for enough check-in counters, 4 level baggage screening systems, large retail area and excellent connectivity to the city will ensure that flying out of Hyderabad will be a satisfying experience for all commuters, he stated.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited CEO Vikram Jaisinghani said 'We are very happy with SpiceJet Chairman Kalanithi Maran's decision to choose Hyderabad as the first and key base for its regional operations with the brand new fleet of Q400 aircraft. Passengers in the Tier II and Tier III towns in the vicinity of Hyderabad Airport will now have very good connectivity to Hyderabad.

Further, the passengers will be able to enjoy a truly world class experience of transiting via Hyderabad, the World's No 1 Airport, to other domestic and international destinations. This strengthens our plans to make Hyderabad as the leading gateway to South and Central India.'

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited owns and operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) using the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. RGIA was inaugurated on March 14, 2008 by UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The airport has an initial capacity of 12 million passengers per annum (MPPA) can increase capacity to accommodate over 40 MPPA in a phased manner. The state of the art airport has already been rated the best in the world twice by Airports Council International (ACI)in the 5-15 million passengers category and is also the first airport in the world to be awarded the Leadership Energy and Environment Design (LEED) silver rating for its eco-friendly design. The airport has also recently won the award for the Best Airport for Promoting Tourism from the Central government.