By Deepak Patel, Business Standard | March 12, 2024
DGCA has given the air operator permit to Fly91 on March 6
Fly91, India's newest regional carrier, on Tuesday said it will operate its first commercial flight from Goa to Bengaluru on March 18.
The airline had on March 6 received its air operator permit from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Currently, the carrier has two ATR72-600 aircraft in its fleet, and it plans to have four more of them in the next six months.
Fly91 had in April last year received a no-objection clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to start operations. The airline is promoted by former Fairfax India head Harsha Raghavan and former executive vice president of grounded Kingfisher Airlines, Manoj Chacko.
On Tuesday, Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated Fly91's special flight between Goa and Lakshadweep. Fly91 said it will operate flights between Goa (Mopa) airport and Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jalgaon, Agatti, Pune, Nanded.
Scindia said that earlier in our country, airlines' closure and bankruptcy used to be the news. "In the past 10 years, the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi brought a new dawn to this industry which resulted in the birth of six new regional airlines," he mentioned.
Scindia also highlighted the multidimensional growth of civil aviation in the country. He reiterated the government's commitment to connecting Tier-II and Tier-III cities through the regional connectivity scheme Udan. He said that the aviation industry is expecting to raise its domestic traffic to 300 million by 2030, which was just 60 million in 2014.