Twenty years ago, Virgin Blue started off with $10 million seed capital and a $15 million loan, which got it two aircraft and a single route. Within a year it was close to going under and probably would have if Ansett hadn’t collapsed.
$2.9 million might get you into piston twin charter work outside of the capital cities and you wouldn’t want to spend it all at once as you’d need a reserve to cover the operating costs until you were up and running.