Air Deccan takes to the skies again with Mumbai to Jalgaon flight

Mumbai: India`s first low-cost carrier Air Deccan took to the skies again on Saturday with its maiden flight taking off from Mumbai to Jalgaon.

As per schedule, the airline would also be flying to Pune from Nashik at 6.20 p.m. on Saturday.

Air Deccan's flight comes under the regional connectivity scheme UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) which seeks to connect unserved and under-served airports as well as make flying more affordable.

The website has sold out all tickets under the Mumbai- Jalgaon route for the next few days. Although some tickets from Jalgaon to Mumbai are still available on the site starting December 30.

Air Deccan bagged 34 routes in the first round of bidding under UDAN. Besides Jalgaon, it would connect Nashik and Kolhapur.

The airline would be employing a Beechcraft 1900D, an 18-passenger twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft for the routes.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Air Deccan was founded in 2003 by Gopinath, a retired Indian Army captain.

The airline had first launched its operations in August 2003 with a flight from Bengaluru to Hubballi, about 400km to the northwest of Bengaluru.

The company had merged with the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines in 2007 had later ceased its operations in 2008 owing to losses.

With Agency Inputs