New Delhi: Exactly a decade after he launched India's first low-cost carrier (LCC) Air Deccan and five years after he was forced to sell it off, Captain G R Gopinath is all set to make a comeback with a startup. Three foreign LCCs are learnt to have approached him to take up to 49% stake in the proposed new venture for which he has already applied to the aviation ministry to get a licence. The non-compete agreement Gopinath signed while selling Deccan to Vijay Mallya's now-grounded Kingfisher in 2007 ends on January 28, 2013. Gopinath told TOI on Monday that he will finalize the partner in two to three months and hopes to launch the airline by mid-2013.
The past three to four years have not seen any new airlines and only witnessed Air Deccan , MDLR, Paramount and Kingfisher either shutting down or losing their identity. These closures have triggered a drop in capacity and hiking of fares by the surviving airlines . This has led to India now witnessing the sharpest fall in domestic air travel globally.
18/12/12 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
