New player in the sky: Zoom Air to take off on Feb 15

Moneycontrol BureauA new entrant, Zoom Air, in the aviation space will spread its wings and start its commercial operations from February 15, reports Hindu Businessline. This 10^th player will focus on regional connectivity and give people belonging to tier II and III cities the opportunity to travel as per a time convenient for them.

The airline has the right kind of aircraft to do regional routes from a national hub which is Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Zoom Air shall fill the gap of sectors that are less catered to, by other scheduled airlines”, said the airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Koustav Dhar in an interview with Hindu Businessline.

In a first, the airline will connect Durgapur (Kazi Nazrul Islam International Airport), the largest city in West Bengal, with daily flights to airports like New Delhi, Kolkatta and Mumbai. Zoom Air also has an agreement with the operator that if the seats are not sold it will get covered for that. Apart from that, the company will get concessions like standard Viability Gap Funding concessions that are advantages on landing, parking and fuel subsidy.

The airline will have aircrafts from Bombardier which are versatile for short sectors and aptly suited for Indian Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The Ministry of Civil Aviation, in its initiative to promote connectivity of different regions of India, launched the Regional connectivity Scheme (RCS) and Zoom Air is now the first private airline to support and join the RCS.

The airline will start its daily operations on the Delhi-Kolkata-Durgapur-Delhi sector and it will extend its services Amritsar in the afternoon, followed by Delhi-Surat-Bhavnagar-Delhi, an evening service.

Zoom Air plans to expand its route network to destinations such as Tirupati, Vijaywada, Mumbai, Shillong, Aizawl, Pasighat and Zero (in Arunachal Pradesh), Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Indore and Bhopal, with a likely daily operations.

The company has leased three CRJ-200LR aircraft from CRJ Aircraft Leasing, Dublin, out of which two have been imported.

The aircraft that Zoom Air has in its kitty is Bombardier Canadair Regional Jets, of 50 premier seater long-range versions, with quiet cabin and fast cruise technology and fitted with high performance CF34-3B19 engines by GE Aerospace.

Domestic skies are crowded with players like Air India, Air India Express, Jet Airways, Jetlite, Indigo, Spicejet, GoAir, Vistara and Air Asia India. And, with one more player in this space, competition is going to be tough.

“We envisage an 18-20 per cent year-on-year growth, on such underserved and un-served airports, and have seen massive air growth in stations like Vijaywada, Tirupati, Ranchi, Chandigarh, etc. It’s all about connectivity and regular reliable services,” said Dhar.