India's new airline to ease congestion on connecting international traffic

India's newest domestic airline, Fly91, will start commercial passenger flights from March 18 easing connecting traffic for arriving tourists and visitors between several Indian cities.

India's Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia this week formally launched Fly91 by flagging off its symbolic inaugural flight between the tourist hub of Goa and Lakshadweep, a pristine group of islands off the Kerala coast.

Scheduled flights between Goa on the one hand and Hyderabad and Bangalore on the other will start from next Monday. Return flights on these routes will also commence from March 18.

Passenger flights between the picturesque coastal town of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra state to Bangalore and Hyderabad too will start next week.

Scindia said the government wanted to connect smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India by air in anticipation of domestic passenger traffic rising to 300 million passengers by 2030. India's domestic passenger traffic 10 years ago was only 60 million.

Fly91 will help cope with such an increase, he hoped. The new airline intends to add cities such as Pune, Jalgaon and Naded to its schedule in a phased manner. This will mean pressure on seats in several cities will ease especially during the holidays and tourist season.

India has seen the birth of six new regional airlines in the last decade because of the growth in civil aviation within the country.

Most of the flights by Fly91 will be short haul of 45 to 90 minutes duration.

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