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Jagson Air gets scheduled status; plans more flights

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Jan. 3

JAGSON Airlines, which has recently been given a scheduled airline status by the Government, plans to start flights to several new destinations, including between Delhi and Rajkot.

The airline has also drawn up an ambitious expansion plan to acquire six-eight more aircraft. "We plan to have a judicious mix of jets and turbo-prop aircraft among the six-eight aircraft which we plan to acquire. The idea of acquiring the aircraft is to provide more flights to more destinations," the airline Chairman, Mr Jagdish P. Gupta, told newspersons here on Friday.

Jagson plans to acquire the aircraft in a phased manner. In the first phase, it expects to acquire six-eight aircraft of the 30-50 seater variety. Company officials said that the exact number of aircraft to be acquired during the second phase would be determined by the response to the induction of aircraft during the first phase.

The airline is looking at dry leasing and lease purchase agreements to augment its fleet strength. The entire acquisition plan is to be funded through internal accruals.

"We are already in talks with all three aircraft manufacturers — Bombadier, ATR and Embraer. In fact, discussions with one of the manufacturers are at an advanced stage. However, divulging the name right now could jeopardise the talks," Mr Gupta said.

Meanwhile, the airline, which has recently acquired its third Dornier 328 aircraft, plans to offer direct flights between the capitals of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab and is also looking at the option of operating on the Raipur-Nagpur-Kolkata sector.

Jagson, which has mostly been flying on feeder routes, also plans to look at operating flights between metro cities, including linking Delhi with Chennai and Bangalore. The airline has set aside about Rs 8-10 crore for developing infrastructure, including training personnel and acquiring equipment for the new aircraft that it plans to acquire.

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