Paramount Airways to fly into western India

Paramount Airways, the Madurai-based full-service airline is spreading wings. After establishing its presence in southern India, this single-class business airline plans to enter western India from May 2008.

The airline is inducting two more 70-seater Embraer planes, which will be based in Bangalore and will be used to connect Bangalore and Chennai with Pune and Goa, and then other cities in western India.

"After saturating the south, we are entering the west with flights to Pune and Goa, and will increase our presence in the west from early 2009," said M Thiagarajan, CEO, Paramount Airways. The airline is yet to decide on its base for west India.

"After we roll-out our network in the west, we will offer the best connectivity between smaller cities in the south and western India such as Coimbatore with Ahmedabad, Madurai with Mumbai, Chennai with Pune and Kochi with Goa," he added.

The airlines which had started flying on these routes (Coimbatore-Ahmedabad, for instance) had to discontinue their services due to the poor response. ''You cannot fly an Airbus A320s on these routes as you may get only 50-60 passengers. The Embraer is strategically suited for these routes,'' claimed Thiagarajan.

The airline also plans to connect Bangalore with Goa, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozikhode, Mangalore, Kochi, and Chennai with Pune. The airline will offer convenient departure timings and multiple frequencies for the business travellers.

Paramount, which connects eight cities in the south with five Embraer aircraft, will induct an aircraft every month from April onwards for the next 24 months. The airline had placed orders for 40 Embraer aircraft in 2005 at a list price of $40 million each. These planes will be inducted by 2010.

The airline is also talking to aircraft manufacturers including Airbus and Boeing to buy wide-bodied jets in 2011 for flying on international routes.

''It's a natural stage of evolution for an airline,'' said Thiagarajan. Paramount will complete five years of operation in September 2010, when it becomes eligible to fly abroad.

The airline is considering the Airbus 330s (242-250 seats), Airbus 350 (300 seats), Boeing 777-687 (287-330 seats) and Boeing 787 (252-300 seats) for its international operations.

Paramount is keen to be a national airline, and after establishing its presence in the west, it plans to go to the north, and then, to the east.

Interestingly, Paramount claims to be first airline to be making money though it refused to share the numbers, being a privately-held company.

''We have been running on operating profit for the last 7-8 months,'' said Thiagarajan. The business model, slower expansion and a sharp focus on costs helped the airline to make money.