Deccan plans to launch international flights from August

CHENNAI: Budget carrier Deccan, which will complete five years in the Indian skies this year, will launch international flights from August, its Executive Chairman G R Gopinath said on Wednesday.

"We are planning to start international flights from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore from August 2008," he told after the inauguration of the airline's first hangar here.

Under Indian aviation norms, only airlines that have flown on domestic routes for five years and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft are permitted to fly abroad and Deccan (formerly Air Deccan), which amalgamated itself with Vijay Mallya- promoted Kingfisher Airlines last year, will become eligible for this in August.
  
Gopinath, however, did not elaborate further on the issue.

The hangar in Chennai has been built at a cost of Rs 11.50 crore and has a total construction area of 3,200 square metres with space for one Airbus A-320 and two ATR aircraft at a single point of time, Gopinath said.

The facility would provide basic and medium level maintenance checks and protective storage to the combined fleet of Kingfisher-Deccan fleet, apart from functioning as an enclosed repair shop or assembly area.

It is also equipped with an engineering and training facility and a state-of-the-art medium level engineering maintenance conference room.
  
He said Kingfisher-Deccan was shortlisting a few international companies to set up an MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facility at Bangalore and would finalise it in the next few months.