KOCHI: When Fly91, founded by Manoj Chacko, takes flight on Monday, it will become the third Malayali-founded airline after Thakiyudeen Abdul Wahid’s East-West Airlines and Shyson Thomas’ Air Pegasus to operate in the Indian skies.
Named after the country’s telephone code, Goa-based Fly91’s vision is to enhance air connectivity between smaller cities in the country. And the failure of many domestic airlines, including the likes of Kingfisher and Jet, is a lesson that Chacko is keen not to repeat.
The Thrissur native and his team did their research. “We studied the downfall of over 24 airlines and industry’s success stories to prepare our strategy. Ours is a simple strategy – involving a single fleet and a basic structure, ensuring we are adequately capitalised, having the right talent pool in place, building a strong network, focusing on cost leadership, etc. Fly91 aims to follow these ground rules,” Chacko told TNIE over phone.
Speaking about operating in Kerala, Chacko said the state does not feature in the company’s initial plans. “It will be considered, possibly in the second phase, after evaluating some other cities. Our current focus is Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Agatti, Sindhudurg, Jalgaon, and Pune,” said Chacko, who has over three decades of experience in the aviation sector.
“We will evaluate more cities in the next stage. We are studying the market, and hope to connect to 10 more airports immediately after the launch of services,” he added.
On being the third Malayali to launch an airline, he said, “I am an Indian citizen. I was born and brought up in Goa. And having worked in various cities, I don’t associate myself with any specific part of the country. Though I have my roots in Kerala, I am not sure if it’s fair to call me a Malayali,” an amused Chacko said.
Fly91 received the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s air operator certificate earlier this month. It will operate from eight cities under the government’s regional air connectivity scheme, UDAN, and has already received approval for 20 routes in the first year. The airline will begin with operations on the Goa-Bengaluru, Bengaluru-Sindhudurg, Goa-Hyderabad, and Hyderabad-Sindhdurg routes.
We aim to provide air connectivity on routes that can be covered in under 90 minutes of flying. “This is the sweet spot we are looking at,” he said.
Explaining the selection of routes, Chacko indicated, “We try to correlate various factors, including macroeconomic indicators of a destination, like GDP, population, purchasing power, and current availability of air transport, besides rail and road connectivity.
As one of the best capitalised regional airline startups, Fly91’s MD and CEO said the company raised around `200 crore in the last four years and believes that it is more than adequate for the plan they have devised for the next five years.
Fund raising was not easy, says Chacko, a former vice president of Kingfisher. “We struggled to raise funds. Despite meeting many investors, we heard back from very few. However, we were determined to launch the airline after funds were raised,” he said.
Fly91 will initially operate with two 70-seater ATRs that it has leased. “Our’s is a scheduled commuter licence, and we cannot operate on trunk routes. We are focused on airports where bigger airlines cannot fly to and enhancing connectivity in smaller cities,” he said.
Future plans
The airline plans to expand its fleet to six aircraft by the end of the year.
“In the second year, we intend to open our second base, either in Navi Mumbai or Noida -- for which discussions are ongoing -- and to connect another 8 to 10 cities. Every year, we intend to add six aircraft to the fleet, open a new base, and open 8 to 10 stations. In short, in the next five years, we aim to have 30-36 aircraft and five bases connecting 50 cities,” he stressed.