MDLR eyeing the regional market

Mumbai: The promoters of this new airline, servicing regional segments, think there's a market out there - where other airlines have gone kaput.
Promoted by the MDLR Group, an established name in the real estate sector, MDLR Airlines has started bookings for its flights between Chandigarh and Delhi.
The airline is planning a full service regional offering and is investing Rs 200 crore on the startup. (A regional startup needs at least Rs 125-150 crore to secure operations for two years.)
According to Gopal K Goyal, chairman, MDLR Airlines, the group is looking at building a fleet of 10-12 BAE 70 aircraft in the next one year and plans to break even within 16 months of starting operations.
In terms of strategy, MDLR is looking at the regional market, which is where the real gap is today, as smaller cities need point-to-point connectivity.
Apart from Chandigarh, places like Surat, Bhavnagar, Ranchi, and some parts of Orissa are on the airline's radar. "We might also enter the north-east depending on how it goes," says Koustav M Dhar, president, commercial and special projects, MDLR Airlines.
The airline plans to get in the luxury segment with better seats and improved leg space in a two-class configuration.
According to Goyal, their revenue model would be to tap into the non-metro to metro traffic, which has grown 48 per cent over the last two years.
08/05/07 Ravi Teja Sharma/Business Standard

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Categories: MDLR May 2007