Aiming at launching international services, all-business-class carrier Paramount Airways today placed a $1.5 billion order for acquiring 10 Airbus A-321 aircraft with each of them costing over $900 million.
Paramount signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the major European aircraft manufacturers on the sidelines of the ongoing Paris Airshow at Le Bourget in France.
Paramount Airways has decided to introduce a second daily service from Chennai to Kolkata from May 14, 2009, following the high demand for its recently launched Kolkata flight. The new daily service will offer increased flexibility and convenience, making it ideal for business travellers.
The city-based Paramount Airways is set to launch its operations in the Chennai-Kolkata sector by the end of this month.
Paramount Airways Managing Director Thiagarajan recently met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and discussed its proposal to make Kolkata as its gateway to northeastern operations, a release here said.
The airline would launch operations of daily flights in the Chennai-Kolkata route connecting Guwahati and Agartala by the last week of April, a Paramount Airways official told PTI.
The global aviation industry may be facing one of its worst crises, but city-based carrier Paramount Airlines is busy drawing up
strategies to expand its operations across the country.
The company will set up a new hub in Kolkata by May-June to expedite its penetration into the northern and eastern markets, increase fleet size and launch international services by 2012, Paramount managing director M. Thiagarajan told reporters.
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Paramount Airways, India’s first premium airline, launched its West India operations on Wednesday with daily flights between Chennai and Ahmedabad.
The inaugural flight took off in morning from Chennai. It was greeted with a water salute to mark the commencement of services when it landed at the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Airport in Ahmedabad.
Paramount Airways expects to be a national player in two years. At present, the airline operates (60 flights a day) in south India.
At a press conference here, the airline’s Managing Director, Mr M. Thiagarajan, said that it would get two more aircraft this summer, which would be used to increase flights out of Tiruchi and Madurai. More aircraft are expected to be inducted later this year, when Paramount would connect up Kozhikode and Mangalore.
By the end of the year, it would link up Pune and other cities in western India. Next year, it would go North. By 2010, “we will be a national player,” Mr Thiagarajan said.
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Paramount Airways has ruled out buying a budget airline in India to expand operations as the company feels this would not be an attractive proposition for its business model.
There has been talk about the airline looking at acquiring budget carriers over the last few months.
Responding to a question on media reports about the same, Managing Director M Thiagarajan told reporters in Chennai that his company had decided to keep away from acquiring budget carriers.
“A low-cost airline model will not be sustainable for India despite its success in the US and European markets,” he added.
However, it is open to acquiring other airlines that suits its business model.
The Madurai-based Paramount Airways has dropped plans of acquiring a low-cost airline and instead plans to concentrate on induction of wide body aircraft and expansion into the international market.
The airline’s Managing Director, Mr M. Thiagarajan, told Business Line that the plans of acquiring an airline had been dropped as the business model of running a low-cost airline and the one followed by Paramount Airways were “diametrically opposite.”
For close to seven months, Paramount Airways had been examining a proposal to pick up a stake in an existing airline in which the South-based airline had the option of becoming a strategic financial investor.
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Paramount Airways, the Madurai-based full-service airline is spreading wings. After establishing its presence in southern India, this single-class business airline plans to enter western India from May 2008.
The airline is inducting two more 70-seater Embraer planes, which will be based in Bangalore and will be used to connect Bangalore and Chennai with Pune and Goa, and then other cities in western India.
“After saturating the south, we are entering the west with flights to Pune and Goa, and will increase our presence in the west from early 2009,” said M Thiagarajan, CEO, Paramount Airways. The airline is yet to decide on its base for west India.
“After we roll-out our network in the west, we will offer the best connectivity between smaller cities in the south and western India such as Coimbatore with Ahmedabad, Madurai with Mumbai, Chennai with Pune and Kochi with Goa,” he added.
Chennai-based Paramount Airways will expand operations to the western region of India by the end of next year in its attempt to establish a ”national presence.” The airline also intends to start international operations by 2011, managing director M. Thiagarajan said here on Tuesday.
Fresh from a $2 bn deal with Brazil for 40 aircraft, Chennai-based niche carrier Paramount Airways today said it would like to acquire another airline at the earliest to strengthen its network in the North and Western parts of the country.
Asked if the Brazilian deal could slow down the company’s pursuit of acquisition of another airline, Paramount Airways Managing Director M Thiagarajan said: “We would acquire it (as of) yesterday, if there was a right proposal.”
Close on the heels of ordering 40 Embraer aircraft for a list price of $2 billion, Chennai-based Paramount Airways is now looking at setting up maintenance, repairs, overhaul (MRO) and pilot training facilities in the country in association with Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer.
Paramount Airways, the Madurai-based full service airline, is planning to acquire 40 more made-in-Brazil Embraer jets at a list price of $2 billion in a bid to have a pan-India presence. The airline, currently operating in the south, is aiming at 60 aircraft in its fleet by 2011.
M Thiagarajan, managing director, said: “We are planning to place orders for 40 aircraft starting delivery schedule from 2008 end to 2011.”
Paramount Airways, promoted by Madurai-based textile house Paramount Mills, currently operates five Embraer aircraft and is awaiting delivery of 15 more.
Paramount Airways aims at acquiring stakes in other airlines as part of its plans for a pan-India presence by 2011, according to its top official.
“If an opportunity comes up, Paramount is open to acquire stake in other airlines, provided the synergies and pricing factors are right,” M Thiagarajan, Managing Director of the Madurai-based private airline, told the media.
After topping the market share in the south, Paramount Airways wants to enlarge its footprint as it orders for 15 more Embraers worth $600 million.
The Paramount Airways Managing Director, Mr M. Thiagarajan, told Business Line that the positioning of the airline as a high value carrier will not change even though low-cost carriers have been taking away customers from full service carriers.
Private carrier Paramount Airways, which has a strong presence in South India, would enter the Western Indian skies by the end of this year and add 15 more aircraft to its kitty in the next three years.
Talking to visiting reporters here after the launch of Paramount’s fourth flight in the Chennai-Madurai sector last evening, company’s Managing Director M Thiagarajan said the airline would try to provide maximum number of services across the cities in the Western region.
Paramount Airways has added an additional flight between Madurai and Chennai, which is effective from February 26.
Introduced as an evening flight, it will leave Chennai at 16.00 hrs and reach Madurai at 16.55 hrs.
It will return from Madurai at 17.20 hrs and reach Chennai at 18.15 hrs.
Paramount Airways, promoted by the Madurai-based Paramount Group, has extended its services in the South with the launch of six additional flights effective February 7. The new sectors would be Bangalore-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Bangalore, Chennai-Hyderabad, Hyderabad-Chennai, Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam and Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad.
