The airline is looking at Europe and Far East to start with.
Chennai-based Paramount Airways is planning to enter international skies by 2011-12. The company is looking at Europe and Far East to start with and expects to spread its wings to other countries in a phased manner.
To support its overseas expansion plan, the airline is planning to buy 7 to 8 wide-body aircraft, which would cost around $150 million each.
Speaking to Business Standard on board Paramount Airways from Chennai to Ahmedabad, M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways, said the company was talking to a few international operators to work on co-chair or through interlink agreement to operate international flights from India.
The company will buy the aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. He did not comment on the investment but said currently the company was procuring planes from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer, on lease. Paramount gets the ownership in the sixth year.
The airline is also planning to procure 11 planes before 2009 to support its expansion plan in the domestic market. Currently, Paramount offers 1,600 services with 5 flights every month across south India including Chennai Madurai, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vizag, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Triuchy.
The Chennai-Ahmedabad service, which was launched on Wednesday, will target traders in Gujarat, who come for business to various parts of Tamil Nadu. By October end, the airline will launch services to Mumbai, Pune and Goa. North and North Eastern services will be launched by 2010, he added.
The airline claims to have a 36 per cent market share in the southern skies.
