Kolkata: The Bhutan Airlines, Bhutan’s first private airline owned by Tashi Air Pvt Ltd, seems to be well set to position itself as the friendliest carrier on the sky.
The airlines, which is on an expansion mode by way of adding new destinations, is bringing in new aircrafts and replacing existing ones. It has also taken up several initiatives to position and promote itself as the ‘friendliest’ airlines brand.
Come 21018, the firm is planning to operate flights to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad next year. It will also acquire aircrafts, having four additional business class seats.
At present, the airliner operates daily flights from Bangkok to Paro via Kolkata and five flights a week to Delhi via Kathmandu. “It has got approval for operating flights to 25 Indian cities and Sharjah. The airlines is planning o to spread its wings to destinations such as Myanmar, Singapore, Dhaka,” said Phala Dorji, chief executive officer, Tashi Air Private Ltd, on Wednesday.
“Being the newest airlines in the circuit, we have more challenges than one. Firstly, we have to reach out to people and tell them that here is one airliner, which operates out of Bhutan to various destinations. Whenever people think of Bhutan, they, invariably, think of Druk. Our first challenge is to break that mindset,” he added. The airlines had flagged off the first international flight from Paro to Bangkok on Oct. 10, 2013 and started daily scheduled flights to Kolkata on Dec. 16, 2013. The company started with Airbus 320-200 series from Lithuanian Smalll Planet and in 2014 from Lithuanian-based Small Planet.
In 2014, it discarded them and started operating two A319 aircrafts with a seating capacity of 122 passengers.
“To promote ourselves, we have now taken up some several initiatives, including offering the same fare throughout the year, offering 50 per cent discount to senior citizens round the year, increasing baggage allowance per person from 30 kg to 40 kg in business class and from 20 kg to 30 kg in economy class, special infant, child and student discount, serving alcoholic beverages and quality meals among others, he added.
