Air Deccan engineering base for Chennai

Air Deccan engineering base for Chennai

CHENNAI: The Bangalore-based low cost airline, Air Deccan, will set up its main engineering base at the Chennai airport in the next 8 to 12 months with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) allotting 60,000 sq. ft. to construct an exclusive hangar.

"We thank the Chairman of the AAI, K. Ramalingam, for coming to the rescue of the no-frills airline as it did not possess an exclusive hangar even after two years of its operations,'' Capt. G. R. Gopinath, Managing Director of Air Deccan, said while addressing a news conference here on Friday.

Capt. Gopinath, who was here to formally launch the sale of Internet driven Air Deccan tickets through 22 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) outlets in the city, said similar arrangement was already there in 30 HPCL outlets in New Delhi and 10 units in Bangalore.

Referring to the expansion plans, Capt. Gopinath said in the next three months, the budget airline would provide a "software shuttle service" linking Chennai with Bangalore and Hyderabad every hour.

"This daily service will be available from 6.a.m. to 9 p.m. for the corporate whiz kids,'' he said adding that the port town of Tuticorin would also be linked by extending the present Chennai-Madurai service.

Shortage of crew

Capt. Gopinath and the Chief Revenue Officer of Air Deccan, John Kuruvilla, said the airline with a fleet of 20, comprising Airbus-320 and ATR Turbo jets, operated 114 daily services linking 35 routes.

Admitting that there was severe paucity of captains to cater to the surge of new entrants in the civil aviation sector and poaching of Commanders, Capt. Gopinath wanted the Government to allow foreign pilots to tackle this serious but a "temporary problem.''