Star Aviation to take off in April, cover tier-II cities in South

Bangalore/New Delhi: Chennai-based Star Aviation is to launch its operations in mid-April, providing air connectivity to tier-II cities mostly in south India.
The airline, promoted by Dubai-based real-estate company ETA Star, is to take to the skies at a time when the domestic airline sector recorded a decline in passenger traffic of close to 5 per cent during calendar year 2008. Star Aviation was recently given permission by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to import three Embraer 170 LR aircraft to begin operations.
During the first year, the airline plans to cover seven cities — Madurai, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram — from its Chennai hub. By the third year of its operations, the airline plans to increase its reach to 50 cities across the country. Being a regional airline, Star Aviation will not be permitted to operate flights connecting the metros in north, east and western parts of the country.
A spokesperson said that the company will be investing over $300 million in phases in the airline, and will offer ‘same-day’ return flights to cities where air traffic is thin. The airline will be a full-service carrier with a single-class configuration. The tickets will be competitively priced, the spokesperson said, without getting into specifics.
04/02/09 K. Giriprakash/Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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Categories: Regional Airlines Feb 2009, Star Aviation Feb 2009