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| Monday, 27 October 2003 |
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India's Sahara to operate 14 weekly flights to Colombo Shirajiv Sirimane India's frontline domestic airline operator - Sahara Airlines will fly Colombo from next month, making it the first Indian domestic airline to be granted international flying rights. It will operate 14 flights a week. According to Sahara's Vice President Corporate Strategy Alok Sharma, this decision was a sequel to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's recent official visit to India. "The two Prime Ministers have decided to pursue an open sky policy between the two countries and our airline is keen to fly to Sri Lanka," he said. Continuing he said that Sahara had already met officials of the Indian High Commission in Colombo and the Sri Lankan Government and was happy with progress made so far. "We are hoping to visit Colombo next week for a further round of talks. The airline has the aircraft capability and infrastructure facilities to fly to international destinations. Once the green light is given we will fly within one week", he said. Asked about the proposed airfare to Colombo, he said:" It would be very competitive. There were over 65,000 Indians and 30,000 Sri Lankans who flew between the two countries from January to September. This was the ideal time to launch our air services with the emerging high tourist season; which would be mutually beneficial to both countries." The airline's Vice President said that they were also looking at obtaining Fifth Freedom Rights where they could operate to Male via Colombo. Jetwing Air had been Sahara General Sales Agents (GSA) in Sri Lanka from 1995. Sahara has diverse business interests. He described his company as a major player in the Indian banking industry as well, servicing over 51 million people with a 690,000 strong staff in 17,000 locations. Sahara is a major player in the Indian housing industry. "We are into the housing business as well and now we are investing US$ 26 million for the construction of 675,000 houses in India, making it the biggest housing complex in Asia," he said. Sharma said that they operate their own Television channel and have a major stake in the Telecom and leisure industry. |
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