After the country’s first seaplane route was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, the chairman and managing director of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh claimed the airline received an overwhelming 3000 bookings on the first day of the beginning of the operations.
The bookings are for the route between Sabarmati riverfront and Kevadia in Gujarat, the site of the World's tallest 'Statue of Unit', an 182-metre tribute to the country's first home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel.
'Prime minister Narendra Modiji encouraged us a lot to begin this flight and today he not only inaugurated the flight, but he was also our first passenger. This the country’s first scheduled sea plane service that will connect Statue of Unity to Ahmedabad,' Singh told media persons.
During the pandemic, SpiceJet is focusing on new sources of revenue, including transporting cargo and regional flights using smaller planes.
The SpieceJet boss addressed the media after returning from Kevadiya Colony on the aircraft which has the capacity to accommodate 15 passengers, two pilots and an attendant.
'We will be trying to connect Statue of Unity with other cities. Our first attempt will be to connect Surat. The existing (one-way) fares will be between Rs 1500-5000. It is not like any other common flight. It is a special experience as it would fly at low altitudes from where the surrounding beauty can be seen near Statue of Unity. People who have a habit of uploading pictures of social media will be able to capture very good pictures on this flight,' he added.
Singh added that only 30 percent of the seats will be priced at Rs 1500 under the UDAN scheme. 'The rest of the seats will be priced as per the market demand,' he added. Spice Jet began taking bookings on http://www.spiceshuttle.com for the sea plane service between Ahmedabad and Statue of Unity on Friday.
'There were too many bookings and so we have now started making a list of people who are interested. We will be intimating them. From tomorrow there will be regular commercial flights… The demand seems to be pretty overwhelming. We have received 3000 requests so far. We had started bookings last night,' Singh said.
A message on the spice shuttle website read: 'We are experiencing heavy traffic and there is limited inventory on our flights. We will try out best to accommodate your request. Please wait for our confirmation.'
Apart from launching seaplane operation in Surat, SpiceJet also plans to introduce seaplane services between Port Blair and Havelock in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Kaziranga in Assam, Delhi to Naini lake, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Tehri Dam. Similar operations are also planned in Srinagar, Ladakh, Udaipur, Sunderbans in West Bengal and backwaters of Kerala.
