Indore’s first air taxi launch delayed, operator plans charter services

Air taxi operations from Indore will not take off anytime soon, but the operator will soon provide air charter services to destinations around the country.

Air taxi operations from Indore will not take off anytime soon, but the operator will soon provide air charter services to destinations around the country.

Operator Supreme Transport Aviation had earlier planned to launch air taxi services from May 9. (Pic for representation)

Operator Supreme Transport Aviation had earlier planned to launch air taxi services from May 9 but is redrawing plans after it lost possession of one Cessna aircraft, which had received a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) certificate. The aircraft was taken on lease from GSEC Aviation, Ahmedabad and its lease agreement expired.

“Our Mumbai office is working on schedules and staff planning and so, the air taxi service will take some time. Meanwhile, we will soon launch charter services once we get operator permit from DGCA for our second aircraft,” company’s senior state manager Milind Mahajan told HT.

The launch of air taxi operations, which was scheduled for May 9, was cancelled at the last moment due to bad weather. The operator, which had earlier planned to launch the services in September 2015, had postponed it due to delay in getting permission from the DGCA.

At present, the operator has not announced any launch dates. Once the schedule is in place, air taxi operations will initially start on Indore-Jabalpur, Indore-Ahmedabad, Indore-Bhopal and Indore-Shridi routes.

In December 2015, the company had received a jolt after the MPTDC cancelled its contract to provide subsidy to its flights.