AirAsia to make its India debut this October with Visakhapatnam

The much awaited low-cost carrier, AirAsia, will soon be starting operations in India with thrice-weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to the port city of Visakhapatnam from this October. 

The airline, which is popular because of its cheap air tickets and good connectivity within the Asian continent, has already started recruiting in India. It will alter its strategy here to include travel agents within its fold - a break-away from it's normal routine because let's face it, a lot of us still can't do it without help!

Depending on the success of the KL-Vizag route, AirAsia may think of running flights between Bangkok and other Indian destinations too. 

Best wishes to our Bombay boy Tony!

Tendulkar becomes a ‘Musafir’

It’s the journey, not the destination stupid. And from Tendya to Tendulkar, it has been quite an eventful one for Sachin. You can almost hear him go: "Musafir hooon yaaron..."

Sorry, bad joke.

His latest in the string of commercial boasts (after he signed up as a minority stakeholder in Mumbai’s interactive gaming hub SMAAASH!) is the online travel company Musafir.com.  

This Sharjah-based travel portal launched its India operations last week with Sachin again starring as a minority stakeholder (with 7.5% stake) as well as its brand ambassador, which bodes well for the company considering his (fading?) popularity.

Sachin at the launch of Musafir.com

The portal was founded in 2007 by trio Albert Dias, Sachin Gadoya and Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Al Thani. It had already been selling tickets on an India website for the last couple of months. 

Musafir.com will not be limited to online operations. It also plans to enter the retail space and plans to add 12 stores in India by next year. It already has 11 offline stores and nine branches across the UAE.

Its India operations will be funded through the UAE-based Universal Travels & Tourism and India-based Viva Holdings, according to Economic Times.

The partnership with Sachin Tendulkar includes a global marketing campaign that includes radio, television and outdoor media in which Tendulkar will be seen showing the travellers ‘a new way to go ghoomne’. Whatever that means.

The good part is that Musafir will NOT be charging any ‘convenience fee’, which is now a standard charge by all online travel companies.

Either way, Sachin is smart enough to know that he should keep his eggs in multiple baskets. Well, more power to Sachin.

Check out Musafir.com as well as its Facebook page.

(Image Courtesy: facebook.com/musafirdotcom)