India's New Airline entrepreneurs - LIVEMINT
New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry has cleared six new airlines—three national and three regional—by granting them no-objection certificates. Air One Aviation Pvt. Ltd, Zexus Air and Premier Air plan to launch operations on a national level if they get licences from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Turbo Megha, Air Carnival and Zav Airways want to take to the skies as regional airlines, which operate within a limited geography and face restrictions on where they may fly to. Here is a snapshot of the new airlines and their promoters.
Air One
Air One is founded by Alok Sharma and his wife Shashi Bala. Sharma is a former president of Air Sahara and has worked with ModiLuft and InterGlobe Enterprises. The Air One management is largely made up of former Air Sahara executives and operate out of its office at Terminal 1, Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Delhi. It has six charter aircraft. The airline, which has only Sharma and wife as directors, has a paid-up capital of Rs.103 crore. It denies it’s a backdoor entry for the Sahara Group. Sharma said the airline will launch in March and work has started on it.
Premier Airways
Premier Airways is promoted by Umapathy Pinaghapani and a consortium of investors, according to consulting firm Capa. Pinaghapani is an Indian citizen based in the US. Premier Airways’ promoters are in the information technology, retail and distribution businesses and plan to start a national level low-cost carrier.
Turbo Megha
Southern movie actor Chiranjeevi’s son Ram Charan and Vankayalapati Umesh are directors of Turbo Megha Airways Pvt. Ltd, which is expected to start operations from Hyderabad. Turbo Aviation Pvt. Ltd, an associate company, has two Cessna Citation aircraft and is based out of Hyderabad. It also has provided ground-handling services to domestic airlines such as Air Deccan, Air Sahara, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Go Airlines Pvt. Ltd, among others.
Air Carnival
Air Carnival Charter Service was established in 2013 and is based in New Delhi. It is founded by S.I. Nathan, chairman of the CMC Group, which runs institutions offering courses in aeronautical and marine technologies in Tamil Nadu.
Zav Airways
Zav Airways Pvt. Ltd plans to start services in the Eastern and North-Eastern parts of the country. It is promoted by Kolkata-based Kishor Zavery. It plans to use Bell 412 twin-engine helicopters that can land in any airport.
Zexus Air
Zexus Air plans to launch services with Embraer E175LR equipment, according to the Capa website. The airline functions from a small office at Delhi’s IGI Airport. It declined to comment on its promoters. Source: DGCA, Airline websites, Capa, Mint research
Source : Livemint