DTDS Travel and Tour Planner, which operates with the Bangalore-based Spirit Air, may have probably broken the great Jamshedpur jinx as far as flights go by completing one successful year in business on Friday.

Now, the one-year-old DTDS, which started small with a nine-seater Cessna Caravan aircraft for flights to Calcutta, is planning to celebrate its birthday with a host of customer goodies. The benefits — more flights, help desk, flexi-fare options and the like — start from Valentine’s Day.

Right now, from Monday to Wednesday, the first flight of the day departs from Calcutta at 9.45am and reaches Jamshedpur at 10.45am and again wings off to Calcutta at 11.10am. On Thursdays and Fridays, the first flight leaves Calcutta at 2.15pm, reaches Jamshedpur at 3.15pm and departs for Calcutta on 3.35pm.

From February 14, fliers will get more morning and afternoon options to help them schedule connecting flights to other cities or abroad from the Calcutta terminal better or simply complete their business in the metro faster (see box).

Shyamal Chakraborty, manager (sales), DTDS Travel and Tour Planner conveyed this new decision for travel agents here.

“In the last year, we have felt that passengers who use our services face connectivity problem as far as other flights go. So we have made our research about flight timings in Calcutta to important destinations. Based on this, we have rescheduled our own timings,” said Chakraborty.

On choosing February 14 to launch the services, Sachin Kumar Prasad, airport executive of DTDS, cited the weather.

“Jamshedpur winters present the problem of low visibility due to fog. By mid-February, it will clear up,” he said.

On the flexi-fare system, he said that passengers booking seats a month earlier will save Rs 2,000.

“If a person books a ticket a month before, he pays Rs 3,940 compared to Rs 5,940 at present,” he added.

The DTDS will also have a helpdesk at the common domestic terminal at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Calcutta for trouble-shooting. It will assist passengers in carrying luggage, getting boarding passes of the connecting flight and answering their queries.

DTDS is planning flights to Delhi and Bangalore from Jamshedpur but the service will take some time due to cost management. DTDS will also get a new 56 seater ATR when the services, starts to Delhi and Bangalore.