FLY91 to Add Planes, Expand Routes by March

New Delhi, Nov 17 (PTI) Regional airline FLY91, which operates over 120 weekly flights, expects to have three more planes as well as fly new routes by the end of March next year.

After commencing operations in March 2024, the carrier has been expanding its network in a calibrated manner and currently has four ATR 72-600 aircraft in its fleet. The carrier, which is a digital native, functions without a traditional call centre.

The airline's Founder, MD and CEO Manoj Chacko, in a recent interview to PTI, said it aims to have three more aircraft before March 31, 2026, that will take its total fleet size to seven.

Of the current four aircraft, two have been purchased and two have been leased. It operates over 120 weekly flights, including services under the government's regional air connectivity scheme. The airline will soon start operating the fourth aircraft.

Stressing that the country's aviation sector is beautifully poised to grow, Chacko said, "We are not going to be prisoners of our business model."

Goa-headquartered Just Udo Aviation Pvt Ltd operates the airline under the brand FLY91 and currently connects eight destinations -- Goa, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Sindhudurg, Solapur, Agatti and Jalgaon. The carrier will be adding new destinations.

So far, Chacko said the airline has received funding to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

Responding to a query on competition, he said competition will never be healthy and it was a choice that an airline makes on how to react to it. "We are not here to teach anybody a lesson... (and) we don't do any chest thumping".

In its first year, the airline operated over 3,500 flights and carried nearly 1.7 lakh passengers, as per the airline.

In five years, FLY91 aims to have a fleet of 30 aircraft that will be operated from various bases and each base will cover 8-10 cities.