India’s booming airline market looks set to continue its phenomenal growth in 2006, with yet more carriers planning to launch operations and even more aircraft orders being placed.
Last year saw remarkable growth in the sector after so many years of the industry being held back by restrictive government policies. Five new scheduled carriers were launched in 2005 and hundreds of aircraft were ordered from Airbus and Boeing.
Now small Indian carrier Jagson Airlines has revealed its ambitions to become a national operator and it has hired the former head of established player Air Sahara to make it a reality. New chief executive Uttam Kumar Bose says Jagson aims to add six Airbus A320-family aircraft on lease this year. He also intends to start negotiations with Airbus over the planned purchase of A321s.
“We will launch the services with the Airbus aircraft by April/May,” says Bose. “The initial six for this year will be leased and I will start talking to Airbus about purchasing...We plan to have 19 Airbus aircraft within three years.”
Publicly traded Jagson hired Bose to run the carrier in December. He is a former head of Air Sahara, having left India’s second-largest privately owned airline in 2004 to take up another job with parent company Sahara Group.
Delhi-based Jagson was established as an air taxi operator in the early 1990s. It offers ad hoc charter services as well as regular passenger services, mainly to secondary destinations in the north of the country with three Dornier 228s and one helicopter.
“It will be a low-cost airline but not so much no-frills”, Bose says of the planned enlarged operation, as there will be economy and “premium economy” seating on its Airbus aircraft.
The airline, which is not considered a scheduled operator, is controlled by Indian conglomerate Jagson International. It is one of several new carriers aiming to launch services this year, the most aggressive of which is planned A320 operator IndiGo, backed in part by former executives of US Airways.
Last year five new scheduled airlines launched services in India on the back of huge growth in demand – Air India Express, Go Airlines, Kingfisher, Paramount Airways and SpiceJet. There are now 12 scheduled airlines in India. ■
NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Source: Airline Business
