India's private carrier Air Sahara is to introduce a service to Maldives, even as it is gearing upto launch services to Guangzhou in China and Dhaka in Bangladesh. The new services are part of the airline's plans to expand into overseas markets.

This is the carrier's first overseas expansion plan after the merger with rival private carrier Jet Airways failed.

Air Sahara will commence the services to Maldives from New Delhi from November 29. The services would be operated through Colombo in Sri Lanka.

According to Air Sahara president Alok Sharma, "This flight will also make Air Sahara the only airline to launch a direct flight between Delhi and Colombo. This is in addition to our existing daily Delhi-Colombo flight via Chennai".

At present, the carrier is flying to international destinations like Singapore, Colombo, Kathmandu and Chicago.

Under an introductory offer, the carrier will price return tickets on the Delhi-Colombo route for Rs 12,000, while the Delhi-Maldives return fare would be Rs 17,000. The carrier also claims that the prices are the lowest on this route.

The private carrier has also signed agreements with hotels in Colombo and Maldives for travel packages, including air-tickets.

It is also planning to commence direct flights to Guangzhou and Dhaka and is open to start operations to Pakistan.

The carrier is also planning to induct new Boeing 737-800 aircraft into its fleet. With the induction of the new planes, the company would look at operating into other major destinations across the globe.

"We have already made the financial commitments for a major expansion back in 2005, which would be mainly for acquisition of new planes. Once these join the fleet, then we will be able to spread our wings in international skies without major capital outgo," Sharma said.

Earlier, Air Sahara added Thiruvananthapuram to its route network by offering a daily flight from Delhi. This is made the carrier the first to offer a non-stop flight between the two cities.

The inaugural fare between Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi would be Rs 5,250 and would have a flight time of 3 hours and 15 minutes.

The airline also operates direct Delhi-Kochi flight at present.

Air Sahara is part of the multi-crore Sahara India Pariwar thatg has interests in public deposit mobilisation, media and entertainment, housing and infrastructure, tourism, consumer products and information technology.

Air Sahara began operations in December 1993, after the Indian government opened the country's skyline to private players. Air Sahara operates services to destinations like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai along with regional destinations like Ahmedabad, Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Bhubaneshwar and Ranchi among others.

Air Sahara connects to 29 destinations including 5 international destinations with 134 daily direct flights and offers 16,500 seats per day.