Visa Airways, the new domestic airline, is preparing to take off by March-end. The airline, whose plans to launch services by October 2001 were scuttled due to the September 11 US tragedy, has received government approval to import three dry-leased Dash 8 Series 100 aircraft.
Visa will initially offer six weekly flights each on Mumbai-Surat and Mumbai-Nashik sectors before spreading its reach to other regions.
It is planning to operate as an ancillary airline, which will connect smaller cities and towns to the major cities, thus feeding the bigger domestic airlines with more traffic from hitherto unconnected places.
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Satish Kumar, general manager (commercial and planning) of Visa Airways, said: "Our aim is to connect the nodes in India and provide complementary services to major domestic airlines like Indian Airlines and Jet Airways. We do not have any plans to operate on trunk routes like Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Kolkata."
Visa Airways is majority owned and controlled by Captain Vivek Sane, its chairman and a former Indian Airlines pilot. A small group of non-resident Indians (NRIs) own a minority stake in the airline. Senior airline executives declined to reveal the identity of the NRI promoters.
In an year's time, the airline is planning to provide connectivity to 12 cities.
The Dash series aircraft to be pressed into service by Visa are eight years old and can accommodate 36 passengers in nine rows of 2-by-2 seats, in addition to 1.2-tonne express cargo capacity.
The fares to be offered by Visa will be at a slight premium over the first-class AC fare offered by Indian Railways on any particular route, Satish Kumar said.
Visa will employ experienced foreigners as pilots till such time as its Indian recruits gain adequate experience. Already, training has been completed for a first batch of 17 pilots, while training for a second batch is currently under way.
The airline is working with various state governments, state tourism development boards and private corporates to put in place the infrastructure at many smaller airports. It is also in talks with top officials at some military air bases to develop a civilian enclave for civilian travellers.