TruJet looks to break even by March, eyes Rs 100-cr turnover

Regional low-cost carrier TruJet, promoted by Hyderabad-based Turbo Megha Airways, hopes to break even by March 2016, targeting a turnover of Rs 100 crore. The carrier started its operations in July this year and hopes to have five ATR aircraft by March, betting on the increasing demand coming from the regional routes.
“We started our operations in July this year as a regional no-frills carrier. We have flown over 1 lakh passengers, clocking a turnover of Rs 50 crore in the last five months. We are hoping to achieve break-even and record a Rs 100-crore turnover by March 2016,” said Vankayalapati Umesh, MD, Turbo Megha Airways.
Turbo Megha Airways has invested about Rs 500 crore in the airline and would operate five ATR72-500 aircraft leased from an Irish company. The company is promoted by Vankayalapati Umesh, a 45-year-old aviation engineer with interests in ground-handling business, actor Ram Charan Teja, son of former Union minister K Chiranjeevi, and Prem Kumar, another director in the company. The promoters have invested over Rs 150 crore in this venture.
The airline, mainly a southern India player, is planning to start its western and northern regional routes and has applied for the Director General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) approval. “We see an increasing demand for regional routes with good occupancy rate, of which over 80% which is largely being tapped bySpiceJet, Air India and Jet Airways, linking the Tier II cities. With the busy metro routes becoming more competitive, we have plans to link only regional routes in the northern and western parts of the country at present and have enough room for growth,” he said. TruJet currently operates in seven cities including Aurangabad, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Chennai, Rajahmundry, Tirupati and Goa.
Besides, Turbo Aviation is also diversifying into a new venture for aircraft maintenance by setting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) unit for aircraft components in India. The facility is being established at GMR Aero park in Shamshabad by its sister company, Turbo Jet Engines (Hyd) Ltd.
We are planning to set up a component MRO with an investment of about Rs 30 crore and are in the process of tying up funds through banks and State Finance Corporation, besides talking to airliners for offering our services through this component MRO,” Umesh said. The component MRO would be the first in the country as there are no MRO for components in the southern region ,and airliners have to fly to Mumbai or Delhi for servicing aircraft.
The facility is being established in an FTZ (free trade zone) location in GMR Aero Park in Shamshabad. The MRO will initially be catering to the requirements of servicing and maintenance of wheels and brakes, servicing of aircraft oxygen cylinders, life rafts, slide rafts and avionics equipment. The company has applied for approvals and the component MRO is expected to be commissioned by April-March 2016.

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