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Headline: Open sky: Goa-London return fly at Rs 16,899 Source: Times of India 8 Oct. 2004 at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-877460,curpg-1.cms By: MANJU V Full text: MUMBAI: The winter is set to witness an incredible fallout of the central government's Open Sky Policy. On December 22, about 300 passengers will fly from Goa to London for a 14-day trip on a jaw-dropping return fare of Rs 16,899. All taxes included. In the weeks to follow, more flights of this kind will take off from Goa and Kerala. Compare these fares to a regular India-London return ticket which costs about Rs 29,000. ''This winter Goa and Kerala will be the best places to take a flight to destinations in the UK and Europe. Around a thousand tickets will be available every week for as low as Rs 15,000,'' says a source from the tourism industry. Thanks to the tourism industry. For the last four years, from December to April, low-cost chartered European airlines like Jet Blue, Ryan Air, Monarch Airways and Cross Air have been bringing in batches of foreign tourists booked for 12-15 day packages to India. ''These aircraft fly back empty to Europe as aviation policy does not permit them to take passengers from here,'' says the source. But with government's Open Sky Policy from November 2004 to March 2005, there won't be any more empty flights. ''The Monarch Airways flight which is scheduled to land in Goa on December 21, will take about 300 passengers from India to London the next day. Ketan Juvekar, chairman, western region, Travel Agents Association of India, agree. ''We are sure airlines like Cross Air which operates flights from Geneva and Inspiration which comes from Sweden will also put up their vacant seats for sale.'' The number of charter operations to Goa and Kerala is on the rise. When the chartered flight trend started four years ago there were barely a couple of flights every winter. But last year, Inspiration alone operated as many as 21 flights between December and February. ======================================= This is good news. The charter services on the London/Goa sector operate with a full load on the outward bound in the Christmas period and quite empty on the return. Two years ago there was an attempt to use that capacity to take passengers from Goa but that initiative ran foul of Government regulations. There are many Goan families in the UK with relatives in Goa. They are unable to visit Goa as often as they would wish. This would be an opportunity for more families to spend Christmas together as well as give some Goans a taste of Europe. Eddie Fernandes --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.773 / Virus Database: 520 - Release Date: 05/10/2004
