SpiceJet calls itself a low cost carrier. What is your airfare on the New Delhi-Kathmandu route?
We have been offering low cost fare wherever we are flying. When we opened our booking for Kathmandu, we opened it for Rs 3000, which is very cheap in comparison to airfare of other airlines flying on the route. Prior to our arrival, the lowest airfare on the route was Rs 6,000. Our fare on Kathmandu-New Delhi route ranges from Rs 2,400 to Rs 12,500.
We have allocated about 25 percent of our total seats as low fare tickets. We offer the low cost tickets on first come first serve basis. If people buy tickets at the last moment, it will be expensive.
What was the reason behind selecting Kathmandu as your first international destination?
The first thing is that we love this country. There are many similarities between Nepal and India. Majority of the people in Nepal understand Hindi, which makes it a lot easier. To be more specific, Nepal offers two benefits - cultural similarities between the two countries and the absence of visa barrier. Nepal is one of the few countries were Indians do not need visa. The schemes that we offer to our Indian consumers will also work for Nepali consumers. Whether you are planning a vacation in Goa or Kathmandu, it will be more or less similar. Kathmandu is the best destination for us to expand our wings to international skies. It couldn´t have got any better.
Tell us more about your flights?
We are operating flights to and from Kathmandu six days a week. We have not been able to operate flight on Tuesday as we could not get the desired flight slot from the Kathmandu airport. Our aircraft arrives in Kathmandu at 9 am and leaves for New Delhi at 9:50 am. Though we are offering only economic class flight, that facilities that we provide are more than what our passengers expect from us.
How will the SpiceJet flights be beneficial to Nepal?
As Nepal is celebrating Nepal Tourism Year next y ear, we can help the tourism industry here by bringing more tourists. Our low airfare will be beneficial to both the Nepali as well as Indian air passengers. We are getting amazing response from Nepal as we flew in 173 passengers, which is 91 percent of our total capacity, in our maiden international flight.
What are your future plans for Nepal?
We are planning to increase the frequency of our flights to Kathmandu from New Delhi. We operate flights to more than 20 Indian cities and we are hopeful that we will be able to bring more Indian tourists to Nepal. Very soon, we will raise our frequency to three flights a day, if not four. We are hopeful of getting slots on Tuesdays as well.
Apart from New Delhi, we are also planning to operate flights to Kathmandu from other Indian cities as well. We are hopeful that we will get permission from the authorities concerned.
We are beginning our flight to Colombo from Saturday. It will be our second international destination. We have started expanding ourselves to international skies after flying for five years in domestic destinations. In the coming six months, we will launch flights to several international destinations. We are also adding six aircraft in our fleet in the next six months.
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