After Deccan Shuttles which is set to foray in Gujarat from Monday with its daily charter services from Ahmedabad to places like Kandla and Jamnagar, Gurgaon-based airline Ventura AirConnect is set to fly intra-state in Gujarat soon.
The airline that launched its first intra-state services in Madhya Pradesh has begun initial process for approvals to fly in Gujarat. What's more, the company is also learnt to have evinced its interest of foraying in the state to the Gujarat government.
"Launch of Deccan Shuttles is part of our initiative to open up tourism in remote parts of the state as well. The Madhya Pradesh player AirConnect has also approached us with an interest to fly intra-state in Gujarat. While Deccan Shuttles launches soon and AirConnect is set to follow soon, we have some more operators in the pipeline," said Vipul Mittra, principal secretary, tourim and civil aviation, Government of Gujarat (GoG). An emailed query to Ventura AirConnect did not solicit any response.
According to Mittra, all the major towns in Kutch and Saurashtra region will be tapped through intra-state airline services in Gujarat.
"We are looking to tap both the business as well as tourist classes through the airline services. The aircraft being used will be of smaller make with a 16-20 seating capacity," Mittra added.
Meanwhile, AirConnect is yet to apply for airport clearance to Airport Authority of India (AAI). "We have not received any clearance applications from Ventura AirConnect yet. However, we see more players joining Deccan Shuttles soon in Gujarat," said RK Singh, director, AAI in Ahmedabad.
Earlier, while announcing its intra-state operations last week, Deccan Shuttle had said that the service will be initially be operational in Ahmedabad-Surat-Bhavnagar route, the Ahmedabad-Kandla route will be made operational from August 27 and Ahmedabad-Jamnagar route will be added subsequently. The company did not give out the passenger fare structure though. The service will be available six days a week, Monday to Saturday.
The service aims to connect Ahmedabad, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Kandla through 12 daily flights. The services were likely to be operational from May last year. However, following non-clearance of the aircraft by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the services got delayed.
The airline will be using a Cessna Grand Caravan 208 B flight that can carry up to nine passengers, the company said in its website.
Deccan Shuttles currently has two aircrafts.
Deccan Charters Ltd, a general aviation services company, provides a complete suite of solutions ranging from corporate travel to aircraft management, maintenance and technical services.
Deccan operates a fleet of over 17 aircraft (10 helicopters and seven fixed wing) from over 15 operational and engineering bases. Deccan currently operates from Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jammu, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Koppal, Raigarh and Surat.
