Budget carrier SpiceJet on Thursday announced the launch of 19 new flights connecting Mumbai to non-metro and smaller cities, which will be effective from the end of this week as the airline looks to expand its domestic network.

The airline is connecting Mumbai to Madurai, Dehradun, Jammu via Srinagar and Guwahati. The airline is the first ever to connect Mumbai to Madurai. Along with this, SpiceJet will also boost its operations to Srinagar, Coimbatore, Kochi and Jaipur, by adding its second direct flight on the routes.

The airline has increased its frequency operations in the Srinagar-Jammu, Chennai and Delhi sectors. The airline said these flights will be operational daily, except the flight on the Mumbai-Kochi-Mumbai sector, which will be operational all days of the week except Tuesdays.

Over the last week, SpiceJet announced plans to induct as many as 22 Boeing 737 NG planes. All these 22 B737 are the ones which were earlier operated by Jet Airways.

Jet Airways, in April, announced that it will suspend all operations, domestic and international, with immediate effect.

Jet Airways, saddled with roughly Rs 8,400 crore of bank debt, has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stop-gap loan of about Rs 1,500 crore from its lenders, as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March.

"We are taking all measures to deal with the shortage of capacity in the Indian aviation market. With these new and additional flights, we aim to minimize the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to the ongoing crisis within the aviation industry." Shilpa Bhatia, chief sales and revenue officer, said.

The move, the airline said, is a pro-active measure to counter the ongoing sector crisis which has resulted in a huge shortage of capacity in the market.

First Published:May 2, 2019 8:05 PM IST