New airline to service US-India route by mid-2008

Mumbai, June 11: The newly-formed Sapphire Airways plans to start operations on the US-India route by mid-2008, its chairman and founder Rahul Puranik said today.

''We'll initially deploy four long-haul aircraft and offer six flights a week by June or July next year,'' he said.

Sapphire is currently evaluating Airbus 330-200s and Boeing 777LRs with less than five years of age. The type of aircraft will be decided in the next two months, said Capt Puranik who is a pilot from Indian origin flying Boeing737-800 planes.

The airline plans to fly on routes like San Fransisco-Madrid-New Delhi, San Fransisco-Munich-Bangalore and Chicago-London Heathrow-Mumbai.

Sapphire will start operations with an initial investment of 130 million dollars. The promoters will pool in 35 million dollars with a debt component of 45 million dollars. The rest will come from private equity placement.

Talks are on with a West Asia-based investor to raise 40 million dollars, said Capt Puranik, and a decision on this is expected by August.

Nearly two million people travel annually between India and the United States. The market is growing at a rate of 25 per cent per year.

In the next one year, Air India and Jet Airways plan to deploy 16 B777s on the India-US routes.

''Our plan is to create early-Maharaja service with all luxuries offered by Air India in its initial years,'' said Capt Puranik while talking to UNI on the sidelines of third annual investors' summit organised by the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

He added that all reservations and back office operations will be sourced from India.

UNI