TIRUCHY : Air Carnival, a new regional airline operator, on Monday spread its wings to connect the Rockfort City, dotted with prominent educational institutes and industrial hubs like Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, with the State capital.
The inaugural flight from Chennai, which started at 8.10 am, landed with 43 passengers at 9.10 am at Tiruchy International airport and was given a traditional water salute by Airport Authority of India using the high pressure fire service vehicles.
The airline was eagerly expected here as it was connecting not only the city but the entire the State.
The flight was received by Airport Director K Gunasekaran and chairman of Air Carnival group SI Nathan. The first day of launch at Tiruchy was a success with a total of 53 passengers leaving to Chennai from Tiruchy. The flight left off at 9.35 am and landed in Chennai at 10.25 am.
Gunaskeran said by March Air Carnival would bring its second service to Tiruchy and launch one more to Bengaluru very soon.
The offer of an introductory price of `1,499 prompted even Jet Airways to bring down prices of its morning flight like Air Carnival, which is now flying at around `3,000.
The ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop short-haul airliner, would be be plying from Chennai to Tiruchy on a daily basis to boost regional connectivity. This would be the second exclusive airlines to provide domestic connectivity after Jet Airways.
The existing three services of Jet Airways to Chennai and the single service of Air Carnival would end the drought of passengers. Air Carnival got its approval from DGCA in October 2016.
The officials also added that the Coimbatore-based aviation company would be operating the same ATR 72-500 across the state connecting five airports: Coimbatore, Chennai, Tiruchy, Madurai and Thoothukudi.
The slots have been worked out in such a way that the Carrier could connect all the five airports on a single day from Chennai having a cooling period of eight hours in the night. Several professors from National Institute of Technology-Tiruchy, Indian Institute of Management and several industrialists from the ancillary industries in and around use the morning flights to reach Chenai.