SpiceJet to connect Dhaka, Kolkata in Dec

SpiceJet will add Bangladesh to its list of international routes in December as the low-cost Indian airliner looks to expand its footprint and explore new opportunities.

The airline will start daily direct flight services from Kolkata to Dhaka and Chittagong, SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said on Monday.

Dhaka and Chittagong are among the seven new destinations SpiceJet wants to connect from Kolkata.

Singh announced the plan after a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, according to a PTI report.

Singh also said they would start new flight services to Silchar, Aizawl, Guwahati, Gorakhpur and Vizag from the city on October 4, just ahead of the Durga Puja festivals.

"We are exploring options of flights to Yangon, Dubai and Sharjah. We will start a second flight to Bangkok in November and another to Jaipur in the near future," Singh said. The airline has seen a "successful turnaround" from the verge of being closed down two years ago, he said.

The plan will make Kolkata its hub both for domestic and international flights.

The city will be the carrier's third hub after Delhi and Hyderabad and will be a base for both Boeing 737-800 and Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, reported the Times of India.

Taking advantage of a tax rebate on aviation turbine fuel from the West Bengal government, SpiceJet announced a number of new flight services from the city.

Under a new state government policy, any additional or new flight from Kolkata would attract a 15-percent tax on aviation turbine fuel, the lowest among all the metros, said West Bengal's Finance Minister Amit Mitra.

"The rate is 30 percent but we have decreased it to 15 percent. In Delhi, it is 20 percent and in Mumbai, it is 25 percent," he told reporters in Kolkata.

This is a window of opportunity for lower taxes and people will get competitive advantage, Mitra said.

Mamata Banerjee said she would write a letter immediately to the authorities as "connectivity" should increase.

She also requested the airline to consider connecting the eastern metropolis to Europe with direct flights.

"The government will give all possible support in this regard. Our passengers have to go to other cities to go to the UK, France and Germany. You will get a lot of passengers. Our students also go to Europe," she told Singh, according to PTI.

Kazi Wahidul Alam, editor of the travel and tourism fortnightly magazine Bangladesh Monitor, said the entry of SpiceJet to Bangladesh would spur competition.

Now Indian airlines Air India and Jet Airways and Bangladeshi airlines Regent Airways and state-run Biman operate flights from Dhaka to Kolkata and other Indian cities.