Offering fares as low as 50 per cent of those of domestic carriers, the Bangalore-based Deccan Aviation is all set to launch India's first low-cost airline.
The company's no-frills carrier, Deccan Air, would start flying on August 23 and make air travel affordable for the masses in India, said Deccan Air managing director Captain GR Gopinath.
Deccan Air would initially fly passengers to some 20 point-to-point destinations in south India, Gopinath said.
The carrier would target mainly train passengers and even offer fares a little higher than the first class train fares.
Gopinath said the carrier would be offering a single low fare system. "There would be no restrictions attached to it like in Apex fares - even if you buy on the day of departure, you get the low fare," he said.
"Deccan Aviation will constantly work on its fares and pass on the benefits to the travellers. The company aims to become the Udipi hotel of air travel business in India," he added.
Low-fare airlines is a success story with international carriers struggling in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US.
These carriers, such as the low-fare pioneer Southwest Airlines in the US and European carriers EasyJet and Ryanair, don't offer frills such as business lunches and mileage points and are experiencing steady growth in an otherwise sluggish market.
Hoping to build on travel volumes resulting from low fares, Gopinath said Deccan Air had devised a user-friendly system for booking tickets. Passengers could buy a ticket on the Web using credit cards.
For those who didn't own credit cards, the online booking system would block tickets on getting the application which can be claimed in 48 hours. Travellers could also go to the agents or call up Deccan Air's round-the-cock call centres.
Deccan Air would be flying ATR-42-320 - 48 seaters produced by a consortium of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company and Italy's Alenia Aeronautica. ATR turboprops are currently flown by about 95 airlines globally.
"We are having our own state-of-the-art engineering facility in Bangalore. Our first batch of pilots are undergoing training in France at the aircraft manufacturer's facilities," Gopinath said.
He said Deccan Air had no plan to directly compete with the existing players as it would be focusing on connectivity to regional routes rather than the trunk routes.
"We probably will give some feeder service to the existing players," he said. For Deccan, the real competitor would perhaps be the railways.
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