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Kolkata: Alarmed at the severe flight disruption on Indigo, the government has given its nod for three airlines that can begin service in 2026. These are Al Hind Air, FlyExpress and Shankh Air. All of them have received No Objection Certificates from the civil aviation ministry to start operations. Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu wrote on X that Al Hind Air and FlyExpress have received NOCs from the civil aviation ministry. Shankh Air has earlier received the nod.
According to information from DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) the scheduled domestic airlines in the country are IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express, Alliance Air, Akasa Air, SpiceJet, Star Air, Fly91 and IndiaOne Air. The three new airlines will push the number up to a dozen.
The civil aviation ministry has constantly endeavoured to make flights more affordable to the maximum population in the country. Analysts are hopeful that the entry of the three new players will help this initiative of the government. “Schemes like UDAN have enabled smaller carriers Star Air, India One Air, Fly91, etc., to play an important role in the regional connectivity within the country, and there is more scope for further growth,” the minister wrote on social media.
Getting the NOC from the civil aviation ministry is the first step. All the new players have to comply with a few regulatory steps before they can become airborne. Al Hind Air is promoted by the Kerala based alhind Group. According to reports, the alhind group is a travel and tourism group with a turnover of about Rs 20,000 crore and was set up in the 1990s in Calicut. It has planned to launch as a regional commuter airline with three ATR 72 aircraft. It will begin with south Indian cities to begin with.
The website of the company mentions that in future it also wants to fly out to international destinations. It is clearly a price warrior and will offer cheap flights. Reports state that the company is eyeing Kochi–Bengaluru, Kochi–Mysuru and Kochi–Thiruvananthapuram–Chennai as the initial routes.
According to reports, FlyExpress is headquartered in Hyderabad and its current focus is in courier and cargo operations and it offers logistics services from India to destinations worldwide.
Shankh Air is the first domestic airlines from the state of Uttar Pradesh. It will begin operations from Noida International Airport with Boeing 737-800NG aircraft. It aims to service relatively underserved cities in and around the NCR region at competitive prices. Reports state that these cities could be Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
It is quite clear from reports that the focus of all three services will be to offer affordable air travel to underserved destinations, which is also the government's focus through UDAN. The minister has also said that encouraging more airlines is a strategy of the government.
One rule of the thumb is whenever new players enter a market, cost goes down and service level goes up. Therefore, three more players are expected to drive down prices. Right now the Indian aviation market is practically a duopoly with Indigo controlling almost two-thirds of the market. With new players, passengers will also some additional flights in case there are disruptions in the existing services.
The December developments have amply demonstrated the dangers of relying too much on a couple of dominant carriers and underscored the urgent need for stronger competition. Aviation veteran GR Gopinath, founder of low-cost airline Air Deccan, told the media, “A country cannot grow robustly with duopolies, or effective monopolies, in any sector.”
