After PM Modi inaugurates India's first seaplane service, SpiceJet gets 3000 bookings
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the seaplane service, SpiceJet MD said that the seaplane has already received 3,000 bookings.
- Republic Business
- 3 min read
The country’s first seaplane service, operated by SpiceJet's subsidiary Spice Shuttle, has already received 3,000 bookings. This comes after the service was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took the maiden flight from Statue of Unity in Kevadia to Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad.
Managing director of the airlines, Ajay Singh, on Saturday addressed the reporters and apprised about the bookings and further hailed PM Modi for encouraging the airline to start the flight.
"SpiceJet has received 3,000 bookings for the seaplane service connecting Sabarmati riverfront and Statue of Unity in Gujarat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged us a lot to begin this flight and today he not only inaugurated the flight, but he was also our first passenger,” Singh said.
He further said that 30 percent of the seats will be priced at Rs 1,500 under the UDAN scheme and further asserted this flight to be a special experience as it would fly at low altitudes from where the surrounding beauty can be seen near the Statue of Unity.
“We will be trying to connect Statue of Unity with other cities. Our first attempt will be to connect Surat. The existing (one-way) fares will be between Rs 1500-5,000… It is not like any other common flight. It is a special experience as it would fly at low altitudes from where the surrounding beauty can be seen near Statue of Unity,” he added.
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The Prime Minister travelled on the maiden seaplane flight from Kevadia to Sabarmati. The Twin Otter from the Maldives arrived in Ahmedabad on Monday. The seaplane took off from Male, the capital of the Maldives, and arrived in Gujarat after landing at the Venduruthy channel for a technical halt.
SpiceJet on Wednesday said it will operate two daily seaplane flights between the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad and the Statue of Unity at Kevadia in Gujarat from Saturday. The seaplane flights will be operated by SpiceJet's subsidiary Spice Shuttle. The duration of each flight would be around 30 minutes.
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Twin Otter Seaplane
The Twin Otter seaplane weighs about 3,377 kilograms and has a fuel tank capacity of 1,419 litres. The length of the Twin Otter is 15.77 meters (51 feet) and the height is 5.94 meters (19 feet). The seaplane has a seating capacity of 19 passengers and can carry a maximum weight of 5,670 kilos.
There is a major difference in the methods and capacities of takeoff and landing between a seaplane and an airplane. While airplanes use land for take-off and landing, the seaplane can take off and land on any water body including any large rivers, lakes and sea. Speaking about the Twin Otter seaplane, Captain Ajay Chauhan explained that the machine has twin engines like its name and consumes about 272 kg fuel per hour for flying.