NEW DELHI: Increasing its international presence, budget carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday announced the launch of eight new non-stop international flights from the country’s busiest metros: Mumbai and Delhi.
The airline said that it has become the first Indian low-cost carrier (LCC) to connect Mumbai with Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh and Bangladesh capital Dhaka, and New Delhi with Dhaka and Jeddah.
Riyadh also earmarks SpiceJet’s tenth international destination and the fourth destination it serves in the Middle Eastern market. The carrier will serve all these sectors with daily non-stop flights.
The flights to Dhaka and Jeddah will come to begin from the last week of July, while the flight to Riyadh will commence on August 15, 2019. The Riyadh and Jeddah sector is expected to tap into a large number of Hajj pilgrims travelling from India. Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet said, “Our new flights... should greatly benefit thousands of pilgrims...”
The expansion also comes at time when the government is temporarily allocating grounded Jet Airway’s international flying rights to other carriers to keep the supply in tandem with demand. Jet, which was once the country’s leading international operator, had a strong presence in Gulf nations.
Separately in the domestic market, SpiceJet launched a daily direct flight service between Mumbai and Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport (RDP) in Durgapur, West Bengal. This is SpiceJet’s thirteenth UDAN destination.