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Sahara to launch regional airline, shore up fleet

Sahara Airlines has announced the launching of a regional airline which will cover non-trunk routes and the north-east with 30-seater turboprop planes.

Airlines's new director Parvez Damania said that this would be the first structured attempt to have a regional airlines and the project was being launched after a number of demand estimation surveys.

Sahara will acquire 12 Embraer-120 aircraft in a phased manner, beginning October, Damania said adding that the Brazil-made pressurised plane was the most successful 30-seater in the world.

''There is a tremendous demand for a regional airlines to cover the non-trunk routes with turboprop planes instead of jet aircraft,'' Damania said, when it was pointed out that some other feeder airlines had not been very successful.

Sahara's plan is to base three 30-seaters each at Delhi, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. The routes are yet to be decided as the induction process is still on. The regional airline proposes to have 80 daily flights to 30 destinations.

The lease for the Embraer will be around $ 30,000 per aircraft. Sahara officials said the government had earlier given it permission to acquire the 50-seater Dash-8 turboprop aircraft so it would not be a problem to get clearance for the smaller Embraers.

Damania said three Embraers will be inducted at a time and within a year all the 12 planes will be in operation.

Sahara will induct the new generation Boeing 737-700 which will be arriving from Seattle in a few days. The aircraft will operate on the Bombay-Delhi-Bombay sector. From May 16, Sahara will be having a third direct flight on this route every day.

Damania said two more latest generation Boeing 737-800s will be inducted by December. By the end of 1999, Sahara will have two 737-800s, one 737-700 and four 737-400. At present, the fleet strength is five aircraft and four twin-engine Eurocopters.

He said at present Sahara Airlines was not looking at outright purchase of planes. ''Ultimately, we will replace all lease aircraft with our own. But its a long-term plan.''

Damania said Sahara had started a good trend by becoming the first domestic airline to lower the fare structure. The consumer was now getting value for money, he felt.

The overall seat factor of the airline had gone up dramatically to 74 per cent after it brought down the fares and began offering other attractive schemes such as free stay.

He denied that the lowering of fares had anything to do with Indian Airlines staring a shuttle service to Bombay.

Asked whether he proposed to introduce any more schemes, he said, ''I don't know what schemes we can offer. We don't have any seats to sell. He said by the end of the year, with seven aircraft, Sahara was targeting 18 per cent of the market. At present, it had about eight per cent of the share."

UNI

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