India’s budget airline pioneer’s new venture

THE pioneer of India’s budget airline revolution is setting up a new carrier.

Captain GR Gopinath – whose cargo airline Deccan 360 collapsed last year leaving him with debts of Rs500-crore (around US$100m) – has secured a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the national Ministry of Civil Aviation for the new airline.

Securing an NOC from the government is one of the steps required for starting a scheduled passenger service.

Although Gopinath would not comment, Jayanth Pooviah, director and chief executive officer of Deccan Charters – a company he founded in 1997 – confirmed the new venture.

“We applied and received the NOC two months ago. [It will be] something like Air Deccan,” he reveals.