The question is whether India’s civil aviation industry will reach the pre COVID-19 level in every which way.
 Turbo Megha Airways operated Trujet, an airline which focussed on the smaller towns under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) or regional connectivity scheme. Devesh Agarwal, an aviation sector analyst and observer said worriedly, “Yes, this would impact the connectivity to many of the smaller towns in Karnataka including Mysuru”.
However, the owners of Turbo Megha Airways have dismissed media reports of a shutdown and said that they were looking at an investor who would be willing to pump $25 million. Further one analyst also said that, “Aviation is a toxic business in India.
It is tough to be in existence. Getting an investor remains a challenge as the first thing he (investor) wants to know is the return”.
The presence of the bigger and competitive players in the industry has been one of the causes for the collapse of the regional airlines. “The bigger players have greater staying power and can withstand the competition,” said the analyst.
“The bigger players have greater staying power and can withstand the competition,” said the analyst.
Air Deccan, which pioneered the no-frills airline model, merged with Kingfisher Airlines. The analyst also said “Paramount was hit by a rise in lease rentals as a fallout of the Kingfisher crisis”.
Sources say that India should look at the Ryanair model where the onus of air connectivity lies with a particular town or city. “Ryanair flies to many small towns and cities in Europe and it is very often the local governments which negotiate with the airline,” analyst further added.
There is merit in this observation as Trujet serviced Bidar, Bengaluru besides Belagavi and Mysuru in Karnataka besides Kadapa, Rajahmundry, Tirupati and Vijayawada in Andhra. In fact there was an attempt made by Vijay Mallya who owned Kingfisher Airlines to bring Mysuru on the aviation map notably during the world famous Dasara festivities.
In fact there was an attempt made by Vijay Mallya who owned Kingfisher Airlines to bring Mysuru on the aviation map notably during the world famous Dasara festivities.
But that was all until Trujet arrived. Things would have certainly got a leg-up if Trujet had continued but also that wasn’t the case.
A report in The Hindu noted that regional airlines like Trujet had wanted extension of the three-year subsidy period that request had been denied. The pandemic aggraated the troubles for the Indian civil aviation sector and that seemed to have hit even Trujet as airline traffic completely thinned out. In case of Andhra Pradesh, it is pegged at 10,518 km, Karnataka (20,738 km), Kerala (4,341 km), Tamil Nadu (26,985 km) and Telangana (3,260 km).
The southern graveyard South India has seen numerous private airlines taking off in vain. During an interaction with media in July 2021, the firm’s the then CEO, Col (Retd) LSN Murty had said that, “the fleet would be expanded from the existing seven adding two more by December 2021 with plans to increase it by five or six more aircrafts in CY2022â€.
The pandemic aggraated the troubles for the Indian civil aviation sector and that seemed to have hit even Trujet as airline traffic completely thinned out.
