NRIs launch Indus Airways

A group of NRIs and Indian businessmen on Saturday announced the launch of a new low-cost domestic airline.

A group of NRIs and Indian businessmen led by Mohan Meakins chief Kapil Mohan on Saturday announced the launch of a new low-cost domestic airline, Indus Airways, claiming they would connect major north Indian cities and later operate the trunk routes with leased aircraft.

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"The company has already got all necessary clearances and is now awaiting the final nod of the Civil Aviation Ministry. We hope to launch our services from April with five leased 50-seater Embraer RJ-145 aircraft," Brig (Retd) Kapil Mohan said at a press conference.

It would be a low-cost but 'all-frills' carrier, he said, adding the airline would make Chandigarh and Delhi as main centres of operation and connect Jammu, Amritsar, Shimla and some other major northern cities and later start operations to Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Brazilian company Embraer's Business Development Director Ricardo Pesce, who was also present, claimed the new domestic carrier would have "an upper hand in comparison with those airlines flying ATRs".

Besides being a liquor baron, Mohan is also known for overpowering two hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane from Delhi to Lucknow in 1994 during which he was stabbed.

Other members of the Board are Krishna Gopal Beri of Beri & Beri Cold Storage and General Mills, London-based NRI P Lakhanpall and Baldev Seth, while the airline would be managed by former senior pilots of a public sector carrier.