The former executive vice president at Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko, will promote a new regional airline called Fly91, according to a report by The Economic Times. Chacko has partnered with Harsha Raghvan from the Fairfax Group, the airline’s co-founder, who will provide an initial investment of ₹2 billion ($24.2 million) through his investment firm, Convergent Finance.
The first take off
The new airline is expected to take flight in September with leased ATR 72-600 planes, with the aim of scaling up operations with six planes within a year and 32 in five years.
Base in Goa
Fly19 aims to set up a deep regional network in India from its base in Goa, which recently got a new airport.
Fly91 apparently gets its name from India’s country code 91 and will be based in the West Indian state of Goa, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations.
Fly91 co-founder
Just UDO Aviation Private Limited, founded by Chacko and his co-founding group, is the owner of Fly91.
One of the initial steps in a process of regulatory permissions required to launch an aviation business, the company has already submitted an application for a NOC.
Both Chacko and Raghavan are conscious of the difficult task of launching and maintaining an airline in the competitive Indian market, particularly in light of the fact that numerous airlines, both large and small, have previously failed to sustain operations.
But they believe that the trick is to keep things simple and always stick to the basics. Chacko said, "We have to remember two critical aspects. The first is that we are fundamentally in the transportation industry and our key focus is to ensure that we transport people from point A to B safely, comfortably and in the most economical way."
"The second one is to keep things brutally simple and stick to the basics and do them extremely well and not try to reinvent the wheel where not necessary."
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