Air Kerala- New airline in the south

India will soon have another airline. (Fly91 from Goa was the latest addition). UAE based businessmen have planned to launch a regional carrier called Air Kerala. As per their official website airkerala.com, the airline has got some initial permissions from the Government to launch a carrier. However airline is yet to setup aircrafts, crew and decide on their destinations & pricing.

Air Kerala will be launched as a low cost carrier, offering economical tickets. Air Kerala seems to be interested in inducing ATR 72 aircrafts to start with- these single aisle, no middle seat aircrafts are good for short distance flights- Air Kerala will be able to fly to various regional destinations from its hub in Kochi- Lakshadweep, Calicut, Bengaluru, Chennai and so on.

Even within Kerala there are lots of potentials- many airport combinations are not served with direct flight. Such as

• Trivandrum-Kannur (500 kms)
• Trivandrum-Calicut (400 kms)
• Trivandrum Madurai (320 kms)
• Kochi-Mysuru
• Trivandrum-Mangaluru
• Trivandrum-Goa
• Kochi-Goa
• Calicut-Pune
  

Lots of people might prefer a short flight instead of several hours of road or train journey. So Air Kerala definitely has lots of potential. When they launch international flights, if flying via Kochi is lot cheaper, people may prefer it- like Mysuru-Blr-Dubai return costs 20k, but Mysuru-Kochi Dubai return costs 15k, then why not fly via Kochi?

Air Kerala also has plans to launch cheap flights to middle east but for that they should first fly a few years within India. If we can fly to Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain, Muscat etc for a price cheaper than what costs to fly Kerala to Delhi, J&K, north east, then many tourists might prefer middle east over domestic destinations. Let us see.

Here's wishing good luck to the new airline Air Kerala.