Private carrier Air Sahara on Wednesday announced the launch of its Delhi-London flight from January 6 with a lucrative promotional package of a free return ticket on its domestic network or a to and fro trip to Singapore.
The special promotional economy class fare on Delhi-London sector would start from Rs 28,500, excluding taxes, while the Business Class fare would be Rs 120,000 and Premier Business class at Rs 170,000, Air Sahara president Ronojoy Dutta told reporters in New Delhi.
The promotional package also includes special companion-free passes for each ticket on the Premium Economy class as well as the Premier Business class.
The packages could be availed by purchasing the Delhi-London ticket before December 31 and travel by March 31, he said, adding that the flight would be operated by a brand new Boeing 767 aircraft in a four-class configuration on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Dutta refused to comment on a spate of questions regarding liquor baron Vijay Mallya's statements that he was interested in picking major stake in Air Sahara.
Announcing that the airline would acquire seven Boeing 737-800s on lease with the first two arriving in February, the Air Sahara chief said the carrier was also in talks with lessors for two more Boeing 767s for its international operations.
He said Air Sahara, which had launched 12 additional flights during November, was planning to have a second daily flight to Singapore this winter season. It was also planning to make the Delhi-London service a daily flight from the present four days a week.
The leading Indian airline has already applied for launching operations to Bangkok and Hong Kong in next summer and would also operate to Kuala Lumpur with additional planes coming in.
Dutta said Air Sahara would soon provide through tickets from any destination in India to any destination in Europe in collaboration with British Airways, while American Airlines would codeshare with it on the Delhi-London sector.
To questions on scarcity of pilots, he said the situation had 'now eased a bit' and poaching had stopped.
On the impending fogs in Delhi and northern parts, he said the carrier was in talks with Directorate General of Civil Aviation over the pilot training requirements and procedures for Category-III Instrument Landing System and made some suggestions in that regard.