Riyadh, December 15: SpiceJet, India's most popular low fare airline, is expanding its wings in Saudi skies, connecting Riyadh with India's capital city New Delhi that fulfills the long-standing aspirations of the people of the two countries. The inaugural flight will take off on Jan. 4 from Riyadh to New Delhi, a sector that has reported progressively growing passenger loads during the last few years.
“SpiceJet has received all the required regulatory/government approval from concerned authorities in Saudi Arabia and India to launch its services,” said Neil Raymond Mills, SpiceJet chief executive officer. Tickets for Riyadh-Delhi flights are available with the travel agents in the Kingdom and in India. The move by SpiceJet to launch new services is significant in light of the total number of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia that presently exceeds 2.2 million.
On the other hand, the Riyadh-New Delhi sector has been underserved by most of the carriers, as many of them have preferred operating primarily from Saudi Arabia to Central and South Indian destinations only. The business traffic on this route is also growing with India emerging today as the fourth largest trading partner of Saudi Arabia besides being a major destination for investment, tourism and IT.
Spelling out the details of the SpiceJet new service, Mills said that “the Indian government has taken substantial steps to open its airspace for air service with many countries ... to leverage opportunity and offer quality services at affordable prices to our customers. In light of this, we are pleased to announce the launch of flights to Riyadh." The SpiceJet chief said that the airline is expanding its footprints on new destinations with the brand new fleet of Boeing and the latest Q400 next generation turbo prop aircraft from Bombardier.
He pointed out that the first flight will take off from the Riyadh-based King Khaled International Airport Riyadh (KKIA) on Jan. 4 at 7 a.m. The flight will land at New Delhi airport at 1:20 p.m. The flight from New Delhi will proceed to Riyadh daily at 3:45 p.m. (Indian time). The tickets for Riyadh-Delhi-Riyadh flights can be booked through www.spicejet.com or by contacting toll free reservation at 1800 180 3333/0987 180 3333 and through travel agents in the two countries.
SpiceJet, which currently operates flights to the UAE and connects Dubai with Indian cities of Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi, has an aggressive expansion plan for Saudi Arabia and for other member countries of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). SpiceJet is India's preferred airline, owning 19.1 percent of domestic Indian aviation market, delivering the lowest airfares with the highest consumer value. The airline currently operates more than 300 daily flights to 38 Indian cities and five international destinations.
The airline offers to those flying from Riyadh convenient connecting SpiceJet flights to a large number of Indian cities including Agartala, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Belgaum, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Port Blair, Pune, Rajahmundry, Srinagar, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Varanasi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
The SpiceJet flies to five international destinations, namely Dubai, Colombo, Kabul, Kathmandu and Male, using the new generation fleet of 36 Boeing 737-800/ 900ER aircrafts. The airline operates newly acquired 12 Bombardier Q400 aircraft for enhancing connectivity to different cities on its domestic and international routes. SpiceJet, headquartered in Gurgaon near New Delhi, has been voted among the top five “Best Budget Airline in Asia” by Smart Travel Asia in 2008, 2009 and 2012. The airline has bagged several awards and commendations both in India and abroad during the last few years.
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