India’s aviation regulator Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given new airlines Fly 91 Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).
Fly91, which is helmed by top aviation veterans, has the tagline ‘Bharat Unbound’.
The airline is promoted by Harsha Raghavan, the former head of Fairfax India and Manoj Chacko, former executive vice president of defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The airline will have the new Goa airport built by GMR as its main base, while the coastal state will also house the headquarter of an airline for the first time.
The airline initially aimed to start flights in the October-December quarter last year.
“We are aiming to be an airline which provides last mile connectivity and connecting remote locations which doesn’t have infra for an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 aircraft. From Goa one multiple destinations in Maharashtra and Karnataka like Hubbali, Shirdi, Nashik, Belgaum falls in the range of an ATR aircraft,” Chacko said last year.
Chacko says that Fly91 instead of competing with mainline carriers will look to have codeshare and interline agreements with them. “We will have an open API for our system. Any airline in the world which doesn’t fly to a remote airport will be able to tie up with us to provide last mile connectivity to their customers on a single ticket,” Chacko said saying that except IndiGo and SpiceJet, no Indian airlines have a fleet of smaller turboprop aircraft and
can be a potential partner.
