SpiceJet to start 28 daily flights from 26 April on domestic routes amid bids to hike capacity to meet peak season traffic

New Delhi: SpiceJet said on Tuesday it will start 28 daily flights connecting Mumbai and Delhi with other cities on its domestic network from 26 April. Cash-starved Jet Airways suspended operations last week and the government authorities are in the process of allocating the airport slots vacated by the full-service carrier to other airlines, including SpiceJet, amid efforts to increase capacity to meet peak season traffic. SpiceJet said on Tuesday the new flights from Mumbai are on the Mumbai-Jaipur-Mumbai, Mumbai-Amritsar-Mumbai, Mumbai-Mangalore-Mumbai and Mumbai-Coimbatore-Mumbai sectors. [caption id=“attachment_2370924” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Moreover, the budget carrier has also enhanced operations with additional frequencies from the city on the routes of Mumbai-Patna-Mumbai, Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai and Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai. “SpiceJet will also introduce two new frequencies each from Delhi to Patna and Bengaluru besides three additional frequencies on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector,” SpiceJet said. The new flights from Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru will operate from Terminal 2 and have a 4-digit flight number starting with 8. Additionally, 4 digit flight numbers — starting with 6 — would be used for flights departing and arriving at Mumbai’s Terminal 2. Shilpa Bhatia, chief sales and revenue officer of SpiceJet, said: “We are happy to announce additional flights from Delhi and Mumbai. We hope these new flights will help minimise passenger inconvenience caused as a result of shortage of capacity in the Indian aviation market." SpiceJet has also announced a slew of new non-stop international flights from Mumbai to Hong Kong, Jeddah, Dubai, Colombo, Dhaka, Riyadh, Bangkok and Kathmandu from May-end. It will deploy its Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft on all the routes.