Trujet, the only Hyderabad-based airline concentrating on tier-3 and tier-4 cities and offering regional connectivity under the Centre’s Udan scheme, has been planning to double its fleet to 10 ATRs and ramp up connectivity to six new destinations besides increasing frequency in four of the 20 destinations that it services.
The top management of the airline, 90% of which is owned by infrastructure major Mega Engineering and Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) and small stake of film actor Ram Charan, informed the media on Friday that the airline would continue to focus on the regional network and intends to begin operations towards North-East later this year.
“Apart from Hyderabad, we have a second hub in Ahmedabad and another is being proposed in Guwahati. We are carrying about 70,000 passengers a month with the fleet of five ATRs working at the highest capacity of 10.5 hours a day. So far, we have carried 1.9 million passengers,” said chief financial officer K.G. Vishwanath.
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Trujet, celebrating its fourth year of operations, has shown a loss of ₹84 crore last year of ₹165 crore turnover (2018), but has been making operational profits in the last three quarters and is confident of growing at 12-15% annually. It began operations in 2015 with two ATR-72s, which have been expanded to five and another five would be added soon.
“Within a year, we plan to add another five to eight ATRs. We will stick to small aircraft and propose to take the new airplanes on lease,” said CEO L.S.N. Murthy. In tune with its growth plans, the private airline intends to increase its employee count by 200-300 from the current 700 in the next six months. It has already employed 100 employees from the defunct Jet Airways. The airline operates over 300 flights per week connecting cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Goa, Aurangabad, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Tirupati, Kadapa, Salem, Vidyanagar, Mysuru, Nanded, Porbander, Nashik, Kandla, Jaisalmar and Indore. The new routes would include Belagavi, Tirupati, Bengaluru, Kolhapur, Visakhapatnam and Nagpur. “We see a huge untapped potential in regional connectivity considering that only 6% travel in planes. The time has come for airlines to collaborate to increase the number,” said chief commercial officer Sudhir Raghavan.