Low-cost carrier IndiGo has announced the commencement of its ATR operations in Hyderabad. The inaugural ATR flight will operate on Hyderabad-Mangalore sector starting December 21, 2017, on the ATR 72-600 aircraft. Aditya Ghosh, president and whole-time director, IndiGo, said, “Following the vision of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote regional connectivity through UDAN, IndiGo is proud to announce the addition of brand new ATR 72-600 aircraft to its 149 aircraft strong fleet and offer connectivity to Tier II and Tier III cities of India. IndiGo network will expand not only to provide connectivity between these smaller cities, but our strong network of domestic and international markets will also open up immense connectivity to and fro for these smaller markets. By December 2019, IndiGo with its fleet of brand new 21 ATRs, would have connected about 15 Tier II and Tier III new cities on its network, thereby giving a big boost to regional connectivity.”
Sanjay Kumar, chief commercial officer, IndiGo, while elaborating on IndiGo’s expansion plan, said, “On January 7 and 9, 2018 IndiGo is commencing its second and third ATR operations, adding Tirupati and Rajahmundry on IndiGo’s 6E network respectively.”
He also announced four new domestic flights from Hyderabad which include an additional Hyderabad-Lucknow-Hyderabad flight, a new Hyderabad-Ranchi-Hyderabad flight, an additional Hyderabad-Jaipur and a new Hyderabad-Jammu via Jaipur flight on December 21. This will be accompanied by two international flights which include Hyderabad-Doha-Hyderabad on December 21 and Hyderabad-Sharjah-Hyderabad commencing on December 29, 2017.
“These additional flights have helped IndiGo in achieving 1,000 flights a day mark in December 2017, making it the only Indian airline to operate as many flights in a day,” added Ghosh.
IndiGo has placed a term sheet for 50 ATR aircraft. The airline is expecting to add seven ATR flights by March 2018 and 21 ATR planes to its fleet by December 2018.
