Paramount in talks with Lufthansa, SIA for cargo feeder service

Southern premium carrier Paramount Airways, which recently launched its cargo services, is in talks with foreign carriers Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines to provide them feeder services across the country.

“We have recently launched our domestic cargo services. We are also in talks with some international players to provide them feeder services to India,” said P Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount.

Thiagarajan said that, instead of going for dedicated freighter services, Paramount will only carry bellyhold cargo. He added that the business would be started with an initial authorised capital of Rs 40 crore.

“We plan to set up Chennai as a hub. We plan to set up six to eight warehouses in the Southern region,” said Thiagarajan. The airline has 7 Embraer aircraft which have capacity to carry 75 tonnes of cargo daily.

Thiagarajan also said that the company is planning to get into a catering service for flights.

“We will have an initial capacity of 6000 meals and then slowly upgrade to 10,000 meals. We plan to use the catering services for our own captive use initially, but we might serve others also,” said Thigarajan.

Paramount, which has plans to go into international services post 2012, is in talks with Boeing to 10 787 aircraft which will be delivered from 2013, 2014.

The company plans to take these aircraft on financial lease, which means that when the lease period is over, the airline takes possession of the aircraft. This is different from an operating lease, when the company either renews the lease or the aircraft goes back to the lessor.

Paramount which operates an Embraer business class configured fleet, has also recently launched its five tier frequent flyer programme entitled Paramout Royal.

The airline which has an employee strength of 700 said that it has no plans for downsizing since it is on an expansion mode. The airline has major plans to increase capacity, albeit to the smaller cities. The carrier which recently connected six southern cities like Trivandrum, Chennai, Kochi and Madurai to Ahmedabad has recently started flights to Goa and will be soon starting to Pune.

“Thereafter, we have plans to go to other western cities like Bhopal, Nagpur, Porbandhar and Bhuj,” said Thiagarajan.