After being in the wilderness for five years, and failing with his cargo venture, Captain Gopinath is ready to take off for the skies again.
The Empowered Committee, last week allowed Gopinath-owned Deccan Charters to start a scheduled airline.
Gopinath had sold Deccan Aviation to Kingfisher in October 2007 and the five-year non-compete clause ends in six months, which lends wings to flying dreams of the captain.
The proposal submitted to the civil aviation ministry lists a fleet of Airbus and ATR aircraft on a dry-lease basis.
The proposal also mentions the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa, Coimbatore, Madurai, Jaipur and other cities. where the services will be operated. Gopinath's firm will get an initial No Objection Certificate before he starts his operations.
Gopinath had applied for permission to operate a regional airline for western India in November last year. The venture could not take off apparently because the fleet could not be arranged for the regional operations.
The timing of Deccan Charter's entry into the aviation space comes at a time when the government is actively considering allowing foreign airlines to invest in India's airline companies.
Deccan Charters proposal comes at a time the odds are stacked against the aviation sector and most airlines are making losses and have had to curtail operations. Kingfisher, SpiceJet and Jet Airways – the three listed airline companies in India – have made combined losses of nearly Rs 600 crore during the third quarter of the last fiscal.
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