Intra-state flight services to begin in Gujarat from December

With the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) and Vibrant Gujarat Summit dates nearing, Gujarat government has awarded intra-state aviation services contract to Mumbai-based Maritime Energy Heli Air (MEHAIR).

After the Mumbai-Pune seaplane services, this will be MEHAIR's second operations in the country where the company will run intra-state flight services between major cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat and Bhavnagar, among others. The company will launch the services within two months with a two Cessna 208 nine-seater aircrafts fleet.

According to state government sources, the contract has been awarded in the wake of boost in business and tourist travel before and during the two mega events that will be held in January 2015.

Speaking about the contract, Siddharth Verma, director and co-founder of MEHAIR said that the services will have to be launched within 45 days of being awarded the contract.

"Hence, we will be launching by the end of this month or early December. We now have a five aircrafts fleet including two seaplanes that are operational between Mumbai and Amby Valley and two land planes which now will be utilised for the intra-state flight services in Gujarat," said Verma, adding that fares for the services are yet to decided.

It needs to be mentioned here that MEHAIR, which has been running an amphibian plane service in Andaman and Nicobar Islands since 2011, had earlier launched the Mumbai-Aamby Valley seaplane charter.

"Fares have not been decided as of now since we are yet to sit down with the Government of Gujarat and identify the sectors. We have some sectors in mind that they want us to cover. We will be finalising the sectors next week with the government after which the fares will be announced," said Verma.

While the total cost of the intra-state services will be around Rs 30-35 crore over a period of three years for MEHAIR, the company has received a subsidies worth Rs 50 lakh per month which it intends to pass on to passengers.

Of the Rs 30-35 crore, about Rs 20 crore is being spent for the two Cessna aircrafts, while the rest is being spent for expenses like infrastructure and manpower resources.