Aircraft of the low-fare carrier GoAir began touching down and taking off from the GMR Hyderabad International Airport from the early hours of Thursday, making the City of Pearls the 23rd destination for it across India.
The new schedule makes for daily non-stop flights connecting Hyderabad to Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Also, tourists seeking to go through the Port Blair experience will be connected via Bangalore, said the airline’s CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, after a traditional ceremony at the airport marking the new addition.
He said they would be adding atleast six more aircraft – one a month, by the end of the fiscal, taking its fleet strength up from the existing 22 to 28 by March, 2017. Consquentially, they were looking to increase number of flights from 144 to 184 daily by this December itself.
Significantly, Mr. Wolfgang also said that depending upon how things turn out, GoAir would go international by 2017 summer. Fielding a question, he said the 5/20 rule that Government of India mandated till recently, was a good one. “It has a reason behind it, we agree,” he stated.
The stipulation says an airline should have five years of flying operations and 20 aircraft, for it to get permission for international operations. However, when the Union Cabinet cleared the Civil Aviation policy in June this year, it replaced the 5/20 condition doing away with the five year operations part.
The stipulation says an airline should have five years of flying operations and 20 aircraft, for it to get permission for international operations. However, when the Union Cabinet cleared the Civil Aviation policy in June this year, it replaced the 5/20 condition doing away with the five year operations part while maintaining that an airline should have 20 aircraft in its fleet.
Wolfgang having a fleet with similar aircraft – in GoAir’s case it is Airbus A 320s (186-seater) and A 320 Neos, made for easier maintenance schedules. “We are not looking for other aircraft and differential seating capacity because we are pleased with our current plane-load factor,” he said.
