Air Costa to take off from Oct. 14

Regional airline from A.P. plans to acquire 25 aircraft by 2018

(From right) Lingamaneni Ramesh, Chairman of Air Costa, Captain K.N. Babu, CEO and Captain Lila Singh Aulakh, Director (Operations) announce the launch of the Vijayawada - based LEPL Projects Limited's commercial operations from 14th October 2013, in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The new airline will connect Vijayawada - Chennai - Hyderabad - Bangalore - Jaipur and Ahmedabad, initially. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

Two Embraer E-170 jets of Air Costa, the first regional airline from A.P., will take off with passengers from Vijayawada to Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Ahmedabad from October 14.

In Phase Two of its operations in November, when it receives two Brazilian E-190 jets, Air Costa would include cities such as Madurai, Visakhapatnam, Goa, Thiruvananthapuram and Mysore, said the airline’s chairman, L. Ramesh, at a press conference here on Tuesday.

The airline would expand its fleet by investing $100 million on acquiring 10 Embraer jets by 2014-end and a total of 25 aircraft by 2018.

Also, in about a year-and-half, the company would have an MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility at Gannavaram airport in Vijayawada.

By 2015, it planned to have operations across 14 routes and fly to 25 destinations by 2018.