More flights to Goa, Kerala for Christmas

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, Dec. 14

THE sun and the sea of Goa and Kerala are beckoning Indian travellers by the hordes this year and domestic carriers are making sure that they get there.

To meet the strong passenger demand all the domestic carriers, whether it be the State-owned Indian Airlines (IA) or the private carriers Jet Airways (JA) and Air Sahara (AS), are putting their best aircraft forward.

IA is to operate a larger Airbus A-300 aircraft on the Delhi-Goa sector on four days this month - December 23, 24, 28, and 30. The decision to operate an Airbus A-300 on the Delhi-Goa sector means that the airlines will be able to accommodate an additional 100 passengers on each flight on the four days, sources said.

``The flights with the larger aircraft have been timed in such a fashion that the airlines will be able to accommodate the last-minute rush to make it to Goa for Christmas and New Year,'' sources said. IA has already announced the launch of a direct Delhi-Goa flight from December 16.

Besides the airline is to operate an additional flight on the Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi sector with an Airbus A-320 aircraft on December 22, 23 and 24. The special flights are to be in addition to the regular daily services, which IA operates on the Delhi-Mumbai-Kochi and Delhi-Mumbai-Thiruvananthapuram sector.

``The extra flights are being operated mainly to meet the strong passenger demand. The flights seem to be meeting passenger expectation as the demand for seats is very heavy,'' sources said.

Similarly, JA is to operate a fifth daily service on the Mumbai-Goa sector from December 24. ``The fifth daily flight on the Mumbai-Goa sector will be operated with a Boeing 737 aircraft. There is so much demand that the airline is reporting very heavy demand,'' senior JA officials said.

Officials of AS also indicated that the airlines too were considering operating more flights to Goa. ``The airlines is awaiting the arrival of another aircraft which would help in offering more flights including more services to Goa,'' AS officials said.