Kingfisher Airlines, the sixth five-star airline of the world and the only five-star domestic airline of India, is all set to start operating to Dhaka in a month or two. Gireesh Bhaskar, Area Manager designate Bangladesh, Kingfisher Airlines, said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor at his office in the city recently. Initially well start with daily Kolkata-Dhaka flights. Well look at double daily flights at the earliest, he said adding, flights from Kolkata to Chittagong and Dhaka to other destinations in India would follow. The 40-minute evening flights will be operated with 66-seat six-blade ATR72-500, the longer ATR with more powerful engines and TV on board and configured in Kingfisher Plus (premium economy) class. It is the ideal aircraft to connect the two cities, he said. Kingfisher has 28 such brand new aircraft. Well be the last one to leave Kolkata and Dhaka, allowing the passengers to do a full days work at either city. Like all foreigners coming to Bangladesh, Bhaskars perceptions of Bangladesh changed after he arrived. Bangladesh is not what I thought. He promised to promote tourism between Bangladesh and India sharing my experience. Appreciating the warmth and hospitality of the people of this country, he said he finds no reason why Bangladesh should not get at much tourists as Nepal, where he served earlier. Asked why its products and services are different from other airlines, he said We treat our passengers as guests and we treat them just as we would treat our guests at our homes. We strongly believe that we are in the hospitality industry, not the transportation industry, Bhaskar said. The Bangalore based airline started operations in 2005 and went international with Bangalore-London flights last year. With 420 departures a day, 70-aircraft Kingfisher is considered one of the top 20 airlines in the world. Bhaskar, who hails from Kerala and has 16 years experience in the industry, is married and father of an eight-year-old daughter.
Source: The Independent on 3rd-Feb-2009
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