Aerovista launches holiday flights for summer '07

This summer, the airline-cumtravel company will operate fixed departure 'holiday flights' using its own Boeing 737 fleet to key holiday destinations clubbed with a selection of reputed hotels and other holiday options for a period of two months.

The launch campaign will start with a press conference at the Arabian Travel Market followed by product briefings, presentations and meetings with key distributors and customers at the Aerovista Stand - UAE 55 at Zabeel Hall. The flight operations will begin from the end of June 2007 and cover 8 weeks of the summer.

The current selection of cities on offer includes Salalah (Oman), Aqaba (Jordan), Antalya (Turkey) and Goa (India). All cities, with the exception of Salalah, will be operated once a week. There will be a twice weekly departure to Salalah. Certain other destinations are in the pipeline and will be announced shortly.

'This is a landmark project for us since it integrates both divisions of our organization to offer customers something unique to this part of the world,'

stated Apandi Lakhiyalov, President & CEO of Aerovista Group. 'Our long term goal is to brand ourselves as a professional and reliable 'Holiday Airline' in the Middle East. And we also want to ensure we have the first mover advantage in this category,' he stated.

Specific itineraries have been designed for some destinations such as Aqaba where customers are offered a triangular product with night stays and tours to Petra and Wadi Rum. On the other hand, other destinations have a choice of tours which passengers can select for an additional charge.

'Our destinations have been selected with clear goals; we either operate to destinations where nobody else flies direct or where holiday traffic is high. For instance, passengers wishing to visit Antalya and Aqaba need not spend time waiting at hubs prior to reaching their eventual destination while Salalah is at its best during the Khareef season which is when we fly into the city,' said Ansar Babu, Director - Marketing of Aerovista Group.

'Holiday flights by Aerovista are not just about a value priced offering. The core benefit is that this is a fresh way of experiencing a holiday. As against regular scheduled airlines, passengers will feel the holiday ambience from the moment they go on-board. Cabin crew would adorn special colorful casual wear, games and competitions will be held during flights and special raffle draws will be held on every returning flight so that a lucky winner will have something to take back home after a thrilling vacation. All these features topped up with a great price make this product a very exciting one for us to offer,' Babu added.

Aerovista aims at making this product a highly accessible one to customers by offering a booking system for all travel agents in the UAE apart from its own shop in Zabeel Road and the corporate website - www.aerovista.ae. All travel agents will be given access to booking systems for them to offer these flights to customers in a seamless manner. Customers going online can complete their entire transaction online with a secure payment gateway or else visit the Aerovista office to complete the payment.

'We have worked very hard in making this product offering as exciting for our customers as well as for our distributors. We hope to gain their support wholeheartedly so that together we can build a foundation for a new market segment in the region,' marked Lakhiyalov.