Deccan plans launch of international flights from August
Deccan plans launch of international flights from August
Chennai: Budget carrier Deccan, which will complete five years in the Indian skies this year, will launch international flights from August, its executive chairman G R Gopinath said today.
“We are planning to start international flights from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore from August 2008," he told reporters after the inauguration of the airline’s first hangar here today.
Under Indian aviation norms, only airlines that have flown on domestic routes for five years and have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft are permitted to fly abroad and Deccan (formerly Air Deccan), which amalgamated itself with Vijay Mallya- promoted Kingfisher Airlines last year, will become eligible for this in August.
Gopinath, however, did not elaborate further on the issue.
The hangar in Chennai has been built at a cost of Rs11.50 crore and has a total construction area of 3,200 square metres with space for one Airbus A-320 and two ATR aircraft at a single point of time, Gopinath said.
The facility would provide basic and medium level maintenance checks and protective storage to the combined fleet of Kingfisher-Deccan fleet, apart from functioning as an enclosed repair shop or assembly area.
It is also equipped with an engineering and training facility and a state-of-the-art medium level engineering maintenance conference room.
He said Kingfisher-Deccan was shortlisting a few international companies to set up an MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) facility at Bangalore and would finalize it in the next few months.
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