* First Chennai-Colombo flight welcomed by Kamal Ratwatte,
Deputy Chairman, Jetwing
Colombo: Further
strengthening air connectivity between neighbouring Indiaand Sri Lanka, India’s most preferred low-cost carrier SpiceJet
made its first flight to Colomboon Saturday.
The flight from Chennai to Colombo was received amidst much
fanfare at the Bandaranaike International Airport by Kamal Ratwatte, Deputy
Chairman, Jetwing; Rehan Wanniappa, Deputy Director, Civil Aviation; Ms.
Shiromal Cooray, Managing Director, Jetwing Travels, Ajith Fernando, Airport
Manager along with officials from the Ceylon Tourist Board.
The SpiceJet management team including Kishore Gupta-
Director and CEO, SpiceJet Ltd, Bhulo Kansagra – Promoter and Director,
SpiceJet Limited and Samyukth Sridharan – Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet
Ltd flew into Colomboon this inaugural flight to commemorate this special occasion.
The flight took off from Chennai,India, at 0130 hrs with and
was received in Colomboat 0250 hrs. This was followed by the first Colombo-Chennai flight departing
from the Bandaranaike International Airportat 0410 hrs.
SpiceJet will now operate daily flights between Colombo and Chennai, which
will further be connected to other important hubs within the domestic network
of SpiceJet. The base fare on this route begins from Rs. 2399 and the airline
will fly its New Generation Boeing 737-800 (189 seater) aircraft on this route.
Fares being offered by SpiceJet on this route are among the most competitive in
the industry.
Expressing his pleasure at this development, Kishore
Gupta-Director and CEO, SpiceJet Ltd said, “Sri Lanka is a diverse and
culturally rich country, with a strong history as a trading society. Offering
an exotic mix of tea plantations, beautiful beaches and tropical highland
forests, Colombois also the commercial capital for the island’s 20 million residents. We’re
delighted to expand our range of destinations in the South Asian sub-continent
with the start of our flights to Colombo.
By making travel to Colomboless expensive and hassle-free, we are confident that this route will be very
popular. The initial response to the launch of these flights has been extremely
encouraging and we look forward to rapidly establishing our presence in the Sri
Lankan market and at the same time strengthening air connectivity to destinations
within the SAARC region.”
The following table explains the flight schedule* to and fro
from Chennai:
Origin Destination Flight No. Frequency Departure Arrival
Chennai Colombo SG 001 Daily 0130
hrs 0250 hrs
Colombo Chennai SG 002 Daily 0410
hrs 0545 hrs
Tickets can be booked through www.spicejet.com or Toll Free
Reservation at 1800 180 3333 / 0987 180 3333 and through Travel Agents.
SpiceJet completed 5 years of successful domestic operation
in May 2010, making it eligible to fly international. Over the next few months,
SpiceJet plans to expand its network to include other key SAARC nations like Nepal, Bangladeshand Maldives, in addition toSri Lanka.
About SpiceJet Ltd: SpiceJet (www.spicejet.com) is India’s most
preferred airline, with over 13% market share, delivering the lowest air fares
with the highest consumer value. We operate 151 flights daily to 20 cities in India viz. Agartala, Ahmedabad, Bangalore,
Bagdogra, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi,
Guwahati, Goa, Hyderabad, Jammu,
Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Madurai,
Mumbai, Pune, Srinagar, Varanasiand Visakhapatnam, in addition to Colombo and Kathmandu.
Our on-time performance is amongst the best in India and coupled with a Technical
Dispatch Reliability of 99.6%, making us an airline with least
cancellations. SpiceJet’s new generation
fleet of 22 Boeing 737-800 / 737-900ER aircraft are backed by cutting edge
technology and infrastructure to ensure the highest standards in safety and
operating efficiency.
SpiceJet is the winner of:
* Smart Travel Asia’s Top 5 Best Budget Airlines in Asia
(Aug 2010) and in Top 10 list for 2 consecutive years (Aug 2008 & Sept
2009, Hong Kong)
* Outlook Traveler’s Best Low Cost Airline (Feb 2008 &
Feb 2010)
* Award for Best Website at ‘World Low Cost Airlines Asia
Pacific Conference’ (January 2010, Singapore)
* India’s
best low-fare airline in a survey conducted by MaRs on behalf of Hindustan Times (December 2009)
* Employer Branding Institutes’ Best Employer Brand Award
for our employee best practices (December 2009)
* World Travel Market Award for multi-channel approach in
distribution (November 2009, London)
* National Award (ICWAI) for excellence in Cost Management
(March 2009)
CIO 100 Award for IT efforts for customer satisfaction and
business growth (2007, 2008 & 2009)
* Frost & Sullivan Indian Commercial Aviation Emerging
Company of the Year Award (Nov 2008, London).
