Amritsar: Air Mantra , a joint venture of Raligare Airway started its commercial operation from Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar. During its inaugural function. Sanjay Godwani, of Air Mantra was present with his team members.The airlines has introduced Beech Craft 1900 D aircraft having a capacity to handle 18 passengers on board and this aircraft will fly on Amritsar-Chandigarh-Amritsar Route, twice a day.
However the first inaugural Amritsar-Chandigarh flight had to return midair due to bad weather in Chandigarh.Manager, Business,Mantra, Bhanwar Singh Chouchan said on Tuesday that the Amritsar-Chandigarh was a demanding route by business men of both the cities as there was no air connectivity between these two cities.
Chandigarh being the capital of the Punjab and Haryana states, and Amritsar being a tourist destination, this route will be highly beneficial for the bureaucrats, government officers, businessmen, tourists etc" he said .A few days ago SpiceJet had started its operation from this Airport by giving its connectivity for Srinagar as well as for Delhi.
He said that the Air Mantra has also made Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar as its base, means Air Mantra would park its Aircraft at Amritsar Airport during nights non-operation time. This is for the first time in the history of Amritsar Airport that an airline had chosen Amritsar Airport as its base he said.
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Related story:
The Curious Launch of Air Mantra
Santanu Choudhury
Source
It seems like a bit of an odd time to launch a new airline.
On the same day that shares of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. first fell below the face value of 10 rupees, the Indian conglomerate Religare Group announced its new regional airline would start rolling out its first flights next week.
Air Mantra – which takes its name from an ancient Indian practice of mystical invocation – will start daily flights connecting the northern Indian cities of Amritsar and Chandigarh from July 23. This will be the first airline to offer direct flights between the two cities. The announcement was made Monday.
A one-way ticket from Chandigarh to Amritsar will cost 4,850 rupees ($88) on the inaugural day for the 50 minutes journey. In comparison, a ticket on an air-conditioned train connecting the two cities costs 385 rupees ($7) for a travel time of over four hours. It’s not clear where airfares will go from there.
For now, Air Mantra has a fleet of two small planes, which operate on this route only. The turbo-propelled Beechcraft 1900D planes can carry up to 17 passengers.
Religare’s strategy is all about targeting regional routes where existing carriers don’t operate.
A Religare executive said the airline plans to start services to smaller cities in the northern states of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, which have limited air services.
Analysts say there is substantial growth potential on regional routes in the aviation sector in India.
“The next stage of growth will be travel between smaller cities,” says Sharan Lillaney, analyst at Mumbai-based Angel Broking. While Air Mantra potentially stands to gain significantly by focusing on regional travel, if successful, this strategy could also draw competition from existing budget carriers.
“It remains to be seen how the new airline expands its operations going forward,” he said.
The new airline represents and expansion for the group’s Religare Voyages Ltd., which operates air charter services with a fleet of two helicopters and 10 planes, which can carry up to 14 passengers. Religare’s travel subsidiary also runs an aviation training academy and offers aircraft engineering and travel services.
Religare’s announcement came as Kingfisher hit their lifetime-low of 9.62 rupees ($0.18) per share on Tuesday afternoon to close at 9.66 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The freefall in Kingfisher’s shares comes amid wider concerns about India’s aviation sector, as five of the six existing scheduled commercial airlines are making losses. The only exception is Indigo, which is still making a profit.
Air Mantra is the first airline to launch commercial services in several years. India’s aviation ministry for a while stopped issuing new flying permits as most airlines in India were making heavy losses, largely due to the rising price of fuel, interest costs and competition.
It will be interesting to see whether Air Mantra bucks the trend.