Air Manas flies to Bishkek
Sharad C. Goel, MD, Lark Logistics, GSA of Air Manas in India, shares about the new connectivity by Air Manas and how Kyrgyzstan can be the next MICE destination for India
Please tell us about the new flight between Delhi-Bishkek.
Air Manas started operating in India from February 2015 with two flights a week. From June we have added one more flight on this route. Apart from Tuesdays and Fridays we are now operating on Sundays as well. From Bishkek, one can have convenient connections to Moscow and Istanbul.
Are you focusing on MICE business?
The majority of those visiting Kyrgyzstan currently are leisure tourists. However, our recent roadshow in Delhi focused primarily on MICE, and there were MNCs, industrialists and agents who can promote MICE. Bishkek has a number of good hotels, and also offers good food, service and nightlife. The people are very cooperative and there is no difficulty for tourists in terms of safety. Issyk Kul Lake has beautiful beaches and water sports facilities. If companies want to have their meetings there, then we, along with Air Manas office in Kyrgyzstan would organise everything for them.
How has the response of the roadshow been?
With this roadshow we assume to fulfil our target. Leisure tourism is already established, while MICE tourism still needs to be developed in the right earnest. After the roadshow, we have received 10-15 enquiries of big groups of more than 100 people each. In fact, Kyrgyzstan could be a very beautiful wedding destination. And the biggest advantage is that the flight is only three hours, and the rates are very low. We start from $300 plus, and with big group, the rates are fixed. We do not charge anything extra. Air Manas is a LCC. We do not have any business class and food is on call. There are soft drinks and liquor available on board, and we are starting to sell liquor and cigarettes as well in the near future.