Jet Airways to increase weekly flights from North East

Guwahati: Jet Airways on Monday said it would expand presence in the North East, increasing the number of weekly flights between the region and the rest of the country.

The initiative forms a part of the airline's strategy to further strengthen the domestic footprint in 45 cities of India, complementing its three hubs at Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru, CEO Vinay Dube told reporters here.

Under its summer schedule, the airline has increased the number of flights between the North Eastern region and the rest of the country to 184 - adding 30 new weekly flights, Dube said.

The measure will not only boost connectivity, but will also help in stimulating trade and commerce, development in the North East region comprising seven states, he said.

"Our 'within India' strategy focuses on our domestic market by having concentration in one city. We have added 15 additional weekly flights from Guwahati, which plays an instrumental role in this season's connectivity facilitating non-stop daily flights to Bagdogra, Imphal and Mumbai," Dube said.

Stating that Jet Airways has resumed its operations from Manipur's capital Imphal by commencing non-stop services to and from Delhi, he said Imphal is also being connected with Pune through direct flights via Guwahati and Kolkata.

Jet Airways has introduced direct flights between Mumbai, Jorhat and Imphal, Dube said. Effective August, the airline will connect Bengaluru and Guwahati with non-stop daily services.

Pointing out that there is a high co-relation between infrastructure and GDP growth, Dube said he envisages an eight to ten per cent organic growth in air travel in the region during the next five years.

To a query on whether Jet Airways would the reduce cost of tickets during natural calamities such as floods, he said, "Our ticket prices are fixed months in advance... But yes, we can certainly be empathetic by waiving cancellation, date change and other charges during such times."