With India's first air shuttle (between Girgaum Chowpatty and Juhu airport) services now expected to take off by mid-September, the city-based service operators anticipating high demand has now decided to put a 16 (14 plus 2 pilot) seater amphibian plane for it, instead of a 9 (7 plus two pilot) seater. In fact, the company is even mulling a 19-seater plane later if the demand picks up in future.
"The shuttle services can be started from mid-September onwards which will coincide with the end of monsoon. We hope to get all the flying permissions for the new plane by then from DGCA and other agencies. It's a brand new plane and has much more powerful engine," said Siddharth Verma, director, Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt Ltd. The new Cessna-208 EX model amphibian plane is being leased from a Hong Kong-based company.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had in January this year claimed that sea plane shuttle service will start within few months as it has got all the clearances except for one remaining from the collector. The project was first mooted more than two years ago by state tourism department which wanted sea plane services to connect the water bodies in the state and thereby promote tourism. The 7-minute journey between Girgaum Chowpatty-Juhu airport is expected to be priced at Rs999 as promotional fares.
The operator claims that the increased connectivity and demand of service across the state will help in subsidising the Juhu airport-Girgaum Chowpatty sector, which is more for public service. "The airport sector is not for making money, as we just want more and more people to fly. However, we are looking at the sector from investment point of view by connecting Girgaum Chowpatty to various tourist destinations as I think people will prefer to travel from here rather than from Juhu," Verma had told dna earlier.
The smaller planes will be assigned on other routes like Shirdi, Aamby Valley, and in Konkan belt of Ganpatiphule and Tarkarli which is expected to start by around the same time in September, the officials said.
