Fly91, a regional start-up airline based in Goa, has received 'no objection' clearance (NOC) from the civil aviation ministry to start operations.
Fly91 aims to start flights in the October-December quarter. It is promoted by Harsha Raghavan, the former Fairfax India head, and Manoj Chacko, executive vice president of suspended Kingfisher Airlines.
"Securing the NOC is an important milestone and we are happy about it. But it is like reaching the base camp of Mount Everest and now the real climb will begin. We plan to apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for an air operator certificate in two-three weeks," said Chacko.
Fly91 has selected ATR-72 aircraft for operations and intends to get 6-7 planes in the first year of operations. Thereafter, it plans to add an equal number of aircraft for the next five years. "We are in advanced stages of discussion with lessors and OEMs. Our core team is in place. We also have received commitments from pilots who want to join us. Initially we will have a strength of 200 employees," he said.
Fly91 will have Goa as its headquarters and it is looking for airports in North and West India as secondary bases.
