Chennai: With bookings opened on Friday, AirAsia India will commence its domestic operations in India with its first flight taking off from Bengaluru to Goa at 3 pm on June 12. The airfare has been fixed at Rs 990 inclusive of all taxes for an initial period of one month. Speaking to reporters, AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya said that the low cost airline would fly first out of Bengaluru to Goa for a week before starting operations to Chennai. “We will start Bengaluru-Chennai route on June 20,” he added.
After June 20, the daily routine of the lone A320 aircraft of AirAsia India will be a trip from Bengaluru to Chennai and back, a quick trip to Goa and back and later another trip to Chennai and back. The plane will be parked at Bengaluru airport. According to Mr Chandilya, the airline will get its second aircraft in two months. “Then, we will look at operating to Kochi, Tiruchy and Kolkata,” he said, adding that Mumbai and Delhi were not in their immediate plans.
However, the AirAsia India CEO said that the airline wouldn't restrict itself from having one single hub, but would develop several hubs so that the planes could be parked at different airport and put to optimal utilization. “For us, base is a place to park aircraft. We are looking to have 10 aircraft by the end of this financial year and so we will like to park them at different cities,” he added. He further said that his airline's USP was to charge less than AC I class ticket in the railways. On the additional charges, Mr Chandilya said that the passengers would have to pay Rs 199 for checked-in baggage up to 15 kg, while also paying extra fees for 'hot seats,' where leg space would be more.
Promo-fare from airlines
To celebrate the launch of AirAsia India in the domestic sector in the country, the low-cost airline has come up with a base fare offer of Rs 5, which excludes the airport tax and other applicable fees for over 1500 promo seats. The statement from the airline said that the fare would be available on flights from Bengaluru to Chennai, Chennai to Bengaluru, Bengaluru to Goa and Goa to Bengaluru. The guests can book the tickets online at www.airasia.com on June 1 for the travel period from June 12-October 25.
