Flybig, India’s newest airline, began operations from 3rd January 2021 at its Indore base. The inaugural flight flew from Indore to Ahmedabad at 2.30 PM, for a duration of 1 Hr 5 mins.
The airline also began operations to Raipur from 13 January from its Indore base. It also plans to add Ahmedabad-Bhopal route from 1 February, having daily flights connecting all the three tier-2 cities by the end of March this year.
The airline, founded by Sanjay Mandavia who is a pilot-turned-aviation entrepreneur, will currently operate 3 times a week with eventual scaling up to have 5 flights a week from mid-February. Flybig has an ATR aircraft of its own and is in a process of getting another one.
The airline has tied up with around 15,000 agents, majorly in the tier-2 cities. They are also in talks with several online travel agencies. They have organized a ‘special flight’ for the differently abled on 31 December to Jabalpur and plan to add the city in its network in the second stage of expansion.
The airline got its permit from regulator DGCA on December 14 and partly began its operations on December 21, when it operated a chartered flight from Delhi to Shillong with the aircraft taken on wet lease from SpiceJet airline.
The airline will be following a hybrid model, in serving snacks on board, but removing other services, to accommodate proper service in less flying time to the fliers.
Post its launch, the airline is looking to serve tier 3 cities such as Bilaspur and Satna from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
