NEW AIRLINE - India's Fly91 secures UDAN route allocations

The Indian government has allocated start-up carrier Fly91 (Goa Dabolim) ten routes under its UDAN Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) making the announcement on July 25.

The latest round of UDAN route announcements focuses on connecting tier-two cities (populations between 50,000 and 100,000) and tier-three cities (populations between 20,000 and 50,000) with each other and larger tier-one cities. Under the scheme, the Indian government will subsidize fares on certain routes into designated airports operated by specific aircraft, namely those with passenger capacities of between 20 and 79 seats and other aircraft with a passenger capacity of 80 or more. The Indian government wants to use UDAN to put scheduled passenger services into at least 50 unserved regional airports and roll out approximately 1,000 new regional routes. Fly91, which aims to start scheduled services by the end of the year, was allocated the following routes.

Jalgaon - Pune;

Jalgaon - Goa Dabolim

Jalgaon - Hyderabad

Malvan (Sindhudurg) - Pune;

Malvan (Sindhudurg) - Bangalore;

Malvan (Sindhudurg) - Hyderabad;

Nanded - Goa Dabolim;

Nanded - Bangalore;

Agatti - Pune

Agatti - Bangalore.

Fly91 CEO Manoj Chacko called the allocation a milestone moment for the startup. "We are committed and on track to launch our commercial operations, subject to regulatory approvals, later this year from our home base Goa," he said. While the airline is yet to secure its air operator's certificate, it has secured a no-objection certificate from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Fly91 intends to start operations with a pair of 76-passenger capacity ATR72-600s, building to six aircraft within 12 months of starting flights.

CH Aviation