Budget carrier City Air will take time to fly

Dubai: City Air, the yet-to-be-launched budget carrier by a Dubai-based non-resident Indian shipping tycoon, has been delayed.
"We were negotiating with an existing air charter operator to acquire it and convert the licence to launch the airline which did not materialise. In this process, we wasted more than four months," said Aniyan Kutty who owns a number of businesses including Clarion Shipping Services.
"Now we are going back to the original plan, that is to register our own company and start operations. If everything works as planned, City Air could take off by December this year," said Kutty.
The airline will cater to the growing Indian aviation market, which has recorded a 50 per cent growth during the first four months of the current fiscal year starting April 1.
Kutty and his partners are investing nearly Dh80 million (Rs1 billion) on the start-up which will operate with two A320s and two ATRs initially.
06/08/06 Saifur Rahman/Gulf News, UAE

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