AirAsia announces daily Mumbai-Bengaluru flights from Jan 15
The daily services on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route will commence from January 15, with fares starting as low as Rs 1,599
Budget carrier AirAsia India on Friday announced the commencement of its flight operations from Mumbai, starting January 2019.
The Tata Sons-AirAsia invested joint venture airline also inducted 20th aircraft in its fleet, making it eligible to fly on international routes.
The carrier said it will add Mumbai in its network from early next year with the launch of daily flight services to the country’s financial hub from Bengaluru, starting January 15.
This will be Malaysian airliner group’s third entry into the Mumbai market after discontinuing the services to the city first by AirAsia Berhad in 2012 and then by its subsidiary Indonesian AirAsia X in April this year.
“We are pleased to make the much-awaited announcement of adding Mumbai to our network. We’re also happy to welcome our 20th Airbus A320 aircraft to our fleet,” Sunil Bhaskaran, chief executive officer, AirAsia India, said in a release.
The daily services on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route will commence from January, with fares starting as low as Rs 1,599.
“We’re excited to introduce flights between Mumbai and Bengaluru! Fares starting from as low as INR 1,599, flights commencing from 15 Jan 2019”, AirAsia posted online.
[New destination alert!]
We’re excited to introduce flights between #Mumbai and #Bengaluru! Fares starting from as low as INR 1599, flights commencing from 15 Jan 2019. BOOK NOW on https://t.co/OsC52vu7AM pic.twitter.com/Issebo2me7
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 21, 2018
Launched in June 2014, AirAsia India is 51 percent owned by Tata Sons, while the remaining 49 percent stake are held by Malaysian no-frills carrier AirAsia Berhad.
The delivery of the 20th Airbus A320 plane to AirAsia will help it launch flight services in international markets as well.
Airlines were earlier required to fly for at least five years on domestic routes, and have a fleet of 20 aircraft before being allowed to fly internationally.
However, according to the 2016 civic aviation policy, they can operate in overseas markets just by having 20 aircraft in the fleet or 20 percent of total capacity (in terms of average seats on all departures put together), whichever is higher for local operations.
The airline was in the news earlier this year after CBI launched a probe against AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes, Tata Trust executive, and AirAsia India non-executive director R Venkataramnan.
The executives were accused of lobbying the government for international flight permits and violating rules that prevent foreign airlines from controlling an Indian operator.
