Delays in bureaucratic approvals and insufficient airport infrastructure are forcing airlines eager to enter the aviation sector to push back their launch dates.
Clearance delay, deficient infrastructure hit flight plan.
MUMBAI: Delays in bureaucratic approvals and insufficient airport infrastructure are forcing airlines eager to enter the aviation sector to push back their launch dates.
After announcing the takeoff of its budget carrier in April, feeder airline operator Jagson will now begin services only by the first week of June. The high profile launch of IndiGo Airlines, which was slated some time in the first quarter of 2006, has also been moved to July.
Speaking to DNA Money, Jagson chief executive officer (CEO) Uttam Kumar Bose said “We are all ready to begin our operations after we get the government approvals. We have yet to be allotted the Delhi and Hyderabad parking bays that we have applied for.”
Bose informed the company’s budget services would take wing with two leased Airbus A320, which would operate around eight flights daily. “We will be utilising each aircraft for over 10-11 hours per day. We are expecting the deliveries of the planes by May-end,” revealed Bose. The airline will deploy its aircraft on Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Bangalore-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bangalore, Bangalore-Delhi, Delhi-Kolkata, Kolkata-Guwahati and Guwahati-Kolkata-Delhi routes daily.
“It is very difficult to get night parking space at airports like Mumbai and Bangalore. We are therefore going for the night parking in Delhi and Hyderabad,” said Bose. The airline, which already has a small hangar space at the Delhi airport, is looking for bigger hangar space. Bose said the company had earmarked an investment of around Rs 250 crore in the first year of its operation. Of this, part would be raised through internally and rest through foreign equity.
Bose said the airline has already initiated talks with an overseas private equity firm for offloading a minority stake to raise funds for its budget carrier. “The Sebi (Securities & Exchange Board of India) clearance for sale of stake to the private equity company will come through in another 10 days,” said Bose.
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