More flights here from Indian cities

SANGAM PRASAIN
OCT 08 -
Kishore Gupta is director of SpiceJet, India’s most preferred low-fare airline. The Kathmandu Post talked to Gupta when he visited Kathmandu to inaugurate the carrier’s Delhi-Kathmandu service. Excerpts.



Why did you choose Nepal as your first international destination?



Nepal is a country of breathtaking beauty that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. However, expensive airfares have posed difficulties in increasing arrivals. Hence, there is space for low-cost airlines on this route. If we can provide low-cost carriers, we are sure that we will achieve success here in no time.

What are your plans?



We will be increasing the flight frequency from other Indian cities to Kathmandu. SpiceJet operates daily flights on the Kathmandu-Delhi sector which is further connected to 13 other Indian destinations on our network. We are planning to operate direct flights to Kathmandu from India’s major cities like Mumbai,Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kolkata in the future. However, our plan depends on the airport slots available here.



Where is SpiceJet in India’s aviation scene? Where are you going next after Nepal?



SpiceJet is India’s most preferred budget airline. Currently, we have 22 aircraft operating 147 flights daily to 19 cities in India. Our market share in India is over 13 percent. With Delhi-Kathmandu flights, we began our international operation. We will be commencing our next international flight to the capital city of Sri Lanka from Chennai on Saturday. Over the next few months, SpiceJet will start its operations in Bangladesh and Maldives also.



Nepal is celebrating 2011 as Nepal Tourism Year. Does SpiceJet have any plans to support the campaign?



Yes, we are planning to increase the number of flights from other major Indian destinations as the tourism market here is showing tremendous opportunity. Increased flights mean there will be more Indian tourists coming here in 2011.