SpiceJet, Tigerair sign interline agreement (Lead, with correction in para 9)

India's low-cost airline SpiceJet and Singapore's largest budget carrier Tigerair Monday announced that they have signed a three-year interline agreement to connect 14 Indian cities to Singapore via Hyderabad airport.

Starting from Jan 6, 2014, customers travelling on SpiceJet's domestic network from 14 Indian cities can enjoy seamless connection through Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport onto Tigerair's Singapore-bound flights.

The 14 Indian cities are Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Chennai, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Delhi, Panaji, Indore, Mangalore, Madurai, Pune, Bangalore, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam.

Similarly, Tigerair customers from Singapore will enjoy easy access to SpiceJet's domestic network, making their holiday and business travel more seamless. The introductory promotional fares start from Rs.4,699 one way and returns, starting from Rs.9,998.

The interline agreement was announced by officials of the two airlines here Monday in the presence of S.G.K. Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL).

"This partnership will hugely benefit travelers from India and Singapore and represents one of the building blocks of the emerging new SpiceJet," said SpiceJet Ltd chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor.

He pointed out that SpiceJet became the first Indian low fare airline to establish such an agreement with a foreign airline.

"India is one of our key markets and we are excited to expand our footprint there through this interline partnership with SpiceJet," said Alexander Knigge, group chief commercial officer of Tigerair.

Kapoor said SpiceJet planned to have similar interline agreements with some international airlines. He said though Hyderabad is their third busy centre after Delhi and Chennai rpt Chennai, they choose it because of its central location.

"We are delighted to be the catalyst in bringing together SpiceJet and Tigerair to create an interline product which will have immense benefits to travellers, the two airlines and to the Hyderabad airport," said Kishore.

Tigerair operates five flights a week between Hyderabad and Singapore.

Kishore said South East Asia account for 20 percent of Hyderabad airport's international traffic of 1.5 to two million per annum.