The Indian aviation industry will receive its newest airline, Flybig, in the first week of 2021, which will commence operations on January 3.
The airline founded by Sanjay Mandavia - a pilot-turned-aviation entrepreneur - will operate three times a week in the initial couple of weeks. "We will later scale up to have five flights a week, from mid-February," CEO Srinivas Rao said.
India's newest airline, Flybig, which obtained a permit from DGCA in December, will have its inaugural flight to Ahmedabad from Indore. The opening time for flying will be one hour and five minutes.
Flybig will connect the Indore-Raipur route to its network starting on January 13. And the airline will begin flying from Ahmedabad to Bhopal from 1 February onwards. The airline will have regular flights serving all three tier-2 cities by the end of March this year.
Even as domestic air traffic continues to increase, the launch of the new airline comes with a drive during the festive season and year-end travel. While the government has increased the ceiling, allowing airlines to use 80% of their capacity now, the expectation is that this will be further eased.
Flybig has an ATR aircraft, and is adding a second one in the process.
The airline, which had received its permit from the DGCA regulator on 14 December, partially began operations on 21 December when it was operating a chartered flight with an aircraft rented from SpiceJet on a wet-lease. To coincide with the Meghalaya government's decision to open the state for tourism, the airline flew from Delhi to Shillong, as domestic travel gradually recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
By serving snacks onboard, but un-bundling other services, the airline would follow a hybrid model.
CAREERS: Contact hr@flybig.in to join Flybig and become part of the flybig family.
