India's first scheduled regional airline will soon take to the skies with the civil aviation ministry issuing an operating licence to Chennai-based Star Aviation Pvt. Ltd, an airline start-up unit of the ETA Star group, a Dubai-headquartered conglomerate.
Star Aviation has been given permission to start a regional service in the South, according to civil aviation minister Praful Patel. This is the first scheduled airline licence issued by the ministry in more than a year.
ETA Star has business interests in engineering, construction, shipping, automobiles, manufacturing, retail, travel and energy, according to its website. Earlier this month, it ordered a mid-sized business jet from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. for operations in West Asia. The group had revenues of $4 billion (nearly Rs16,000 crore) in 2006, said the website.
A Bangalore-based spokesman for the group declined immediate comment. According to presentations that Star Aviation has made to the government, the airline will operate a fleet of five turboprop planes, made by Italian-French manufacturer Avions de Transport Regional (ATR), on lease to start with. It is likely to have an operational base in Chennai, together with aircraft maintenance facilities at Hyderabad.
The entry of so-called regional airlines, which are permitted only to fly between India’s large and small cities or between small cities under government rules, is expected to halt rising fares in an industry under consolidation. Regional airline companies are not allowed to fly crowded routes between large metropolitan cities.
It is unclear whether the other applicants, including Air Dravida, Bangalore’s Trans India Aviation Pvt. Ltd and Gurgaon-based MDLR Airlines Pvt. Ltd, will get regional permits anytime soon.
03/12/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint
Monday, December 03, 2007