Captain G R Gopinath, who began the era of low-cost air tickets in the country, is all set to fly again. His company, Deccan Charters Limited, has been given permission by the Civil Aviation Ministry as a scheduled airline which will operate to 21 destinations having its base in south India.
The company was given the “no-objection certificate” about two months ago to start the airline.It is learnt that according to the application filed by the company, it intends to start the airline with Airbus 320s and ATR-72s.
Bangalore-based Gopinath’s Air Deccan, which started a revolution in Indian aviation with tickets for Re 1, later sold the carrier to Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya.
Gopinath, who launched an air cargo company which did not make much headway, may start the passenger airline service by the end of the year or next year. The “no-compete clause” with Mallya’s Kingfisher is set to end by the end of the year. The stations that the new airline would fly include: Mumbai, Delhi, Coimbatore, Madurai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Goa.
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