India’s newest domestic airline, Fly91, will start commercial passenger flights from March 18, easing connecting traffic for arriving tourists and visitors between several Indian cities, a Wam news agency report said.
India’s Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia this week formally launched Fly91 by flagging off its symbolic inaugural flight between the tourist hub of Goa and Lakshadweep, a pristine group of islands off the Kerala coast.
Scheduled flights between Goa, Hyderabad and Bengaluru will start from next Monday. Passenger flights between the picturesque coastal town of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra state to Bengaluru and Hyderabad will start next week.
Scindia said the government wanted to connect smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India by air in anticipation of domestic passenger traffic rising to 300 million passengers by 2030. India’s domestic passenger traffic 10 years ago was only 60 million.
Fly91 will help cope with such an increase, he hoped. The new airline intends to add cities such as Pune, Jalgaon and Nanded to its schedule in a phased manner. Most of the flights by Fly91 will be short haul of 45 to 90 minutes duration.
