Paramount Airways plans to induct 10 planes

Chennai-based airline Paramount Airways, whose license was suspended by aviation regulator DGCA last week, plans to induct ten aircraft in its fleet by December this year, an airline official said today.

The suspension came as the airline had not met the minimum fleet requirement and addressed certain safety issues for the regulator to consider restoring its license, official sources said.

As per the laid down rules, an airline must have a fleet of at least five aircraft to be considered a scheduled air operator. At the moment, Paramount has just one operational aircraft.

But the Paramount official said the airline had recently received government permission to import 22 aircraft and the acquisition plan was made to beef up its expansion service which include flights to metros.

The official said: "The government has granted us permission to import 22 aircraft. Consequently, we are buying 10 aircraft in this calendar year and the remaining will be acquired next year."

Of the 22 aircraft, the purchase of which has been cleared by the government, 12 are Airbus 320, six Bombardier Q-400 and remaining 4 are Embraer-175 planes, the official said.

"By December this year, we will induct 10 new aircraft in our fleet. These include two Airbus 320 and 4 Embrarer-175. Besides and 2 two Bombardier 400," he said, adding the delivery of these planes would start as early as August.

He said Paramount would use these aircraft to expand its operations across country. "We plan to add six new destinations and launch around 100 flights with these aircraft. While the larger Airbus planes would be deployed on metro routes, the Embraers and Bombardiers aircraf would be used to "strengthen our southern region operations," the official said.

To questions, he said the all-business class model of the airline would continue to exist and the Airbus aircraft could have a First Class as well.