Air Costa takes off to connect towns

Hyderabad: Even as the aviation industry seems to be in doldrums, Vijayawada-based Air Costa is hopeful of creating a pie for itself among the slew of carriers in India by increasing connectivity to tier-II cities.
Claiming to be India’s first regional airline, Air Costa, promoted by a little known infrastructure company LEPL Group Ltd, said it has planned to invest $150 million in the next two years.
According to Ramesh Lingamaneni, chairman LEPL Projects Ltd, Aviation, Air Costa will fly the Embraer E-170 and E-190 jets for its scheduled operations. The airline has already taken delivery of two E170 jets and will add three more by the end of this year. “We plan to add 10 E-190 jets by the end of 2014 and make the fleet go up to 25 by 2018,” he said.
The carrier will initially connect to Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Ahemedabad and later, spread its wings to Pune, Madurai, Goa, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam.
Read news in full 09/10/13 Deccan Chronicle