Hyderabad's glam baby TruJet finally on Nagpur tarmac?

Hyderabad: Has the turbulent journey of low-cost airline TruJet, which had glamorous beginnings in 2013 when Turbo Megha Airways Private Limited was incorporated in Hyderabad by Umesh Vankayalapati along with Tollywood star Ram Charan Teja as promoter with backing of several investors, finally found a safe landing at Nagpur?

The latest 200 crore stake sale in TruJet (Turbo Megha Airways Private Limited) has created a buzz in the aviation sector. WinAir Aviation, the company that would be taking over 79% stake in TruJet, has its registered office in Nagpur. The deal will also help TruJet tide over financial crisis.

The airline had changed hands in 2014 with Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd acquiring Turbo Megha Airways and its operations finally took off in 2015. But by mid-2020, most of its fleet was grounded over unpaid dues and in April 2021, MEIL said it was selling 49% stake in the airline to US-based Interups Inc promoted by NRI businessman Laxmi Prasad. But in October 2021 MEIL transferred the ownership of TruJet to former owner V Has the turbulent journey of low-cost airline TruJet, which had glamorous beginnings in 2013 when Turbo Megha Airways Private Limited was incorporated in Hyderabad by Umesh Vankayalapati along with Tollywood star Ram Charan Teja as promoter with backing of several investors, finally found a safe landing at Nagpur?

The latest 200 crore stake sale in TruJet (Turbo Megha Airways Private Limited) has created a buzz in the aviation sector. WinAir Aviation, the company that would be taking over 79% stake in TruJet, has its registered office in Nagpur. The deal will also help TruJet tide over financial crisis.

The airline had changed hands in 2014 with Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd acquiring Turbo Megha Airways and its operations finally took off in 2015. But by mid-2020, most of its fleet was grounded over unpaid dues and in April 2021, MEIL said it was selling 49% stake in the airline to US-based Interups Inc promoted by NRI businessman Laxmi Prasad. But in October 2021 MEIL transferred the ownership of TruJet to former owner V Umesh for an undisclosed amount amid speculation that the deal with Interups had fallen through. But in mid-February this year, TruJet's operations came to a grinding halt for which its managing director and founder V Umesh cited technical and administrative reasons.

Samuel Timothy, 33, WinAir's director, said the company was incorporated a year ago. The idea was to start a new airlines under the banner. "Most of the work happens from Goa, Hyderabad and Pune," Samuel told TOI.

28/05/22 Shishir Arya/Times of India

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From DJ, show biz to airline’s takeover

TOI tracks journey of Samuel Timothy, director of Gokulpeth-based WinAir Aviation that would be taking over 79% stake in Trujet in a Rs200Cr deal

Nagpur: The latest Rs Rs 200 crore stake sale in Trujet (Turbo Megha Airways Private Limited), which has created a buzz in aviation sector, has a Nagpur connect. WinAir Aviation, the company that would be taking over 79% stake in Trujet, has its registered office at a home in the bylanes of Gokulpeth. The deal will also help Trujet tide over financial crisis.

WinAir’s director Samuel Timothy, 33, had started his career as ‘gospel DJ’ over a decade ago playing Christian religious music in the city, before shifting to Mumbai. In between, he worked at a FM radio station here.

He was also CEO in Pinnacle Celebrity, a firm in Mumbai. As the pandemic hit show business, the firm shut down and Samuel came down to Nagpur during lockdown thinking what to do next.

He says WinAir was incorporated a year ago. The idea was to start a new airlines under the banner. Samuel accepts that the growth was fast even to his own expectations. On his net worth, he says a detailed statement would be released soon.

In 2014, he shifted out of Nagpur. A soft-spoken Samuel says the turning point came when he bagged a contract to carry out earth work for Mopa Airport in Goa after which there was no looking back. This was a Rs Rs 50 crore (approximately) assignment.

For the Mopa deal, Samuel says he got funding from some of his silent partners. “The Trujet venture is being funded by Aaryans Group which in turn has got foreign investment,” he says while attributing his growth to the association with Aaryans Group.

Samuel has done his schooling from Indira Convent and graduation from Hislop College. His residence-cum registered office is a modest place at the Mata Mandir lane of Gokulpeth. His father Ranjan Timothy runs a legal consultancy business. As Samuel is not in the city, his father made a phone call to him for TOI.

“Most of the work happens from Goa, Hyderabad and Pune. Currently, I am at Goa,” he told TOI. “We are soon going to have an office at Nagpur and a site has been identified at Manish Nagar,” he says.

“After the takeover, the company plans to add more aircraft to the fleet taking it to 20 from four at present. We are in a position to lease or even buy planes,” he says.

For Samule, there was always a plan to start a career in aviation and Trujet already had a running business. “Trujet has over 110 stations under the government’s UDAAN scheme. With the enhanced fleet Winair will be covering all the stations,” he says.

On Aryaans group, he says it is based in Pune and run by Manohar and Smita Jagtap. Its website says the company is into businesses ranging from sugar manufacturing, real estate entertainment to petroleum. The company was incorporated in 2013. In November 2021, it managed to get FDI and the fund has been cleared for utilization by the departments concerned, says the website.

26/05/22 Shishir Arya/Times of India

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How a gospel DJ-turned-event manager-turned civil contractor became India's newest airline owner

Samuel Timothy seems like the jack of all trades. Or at least that’s what a search of the man shows up on the internet.

His Facebook profile describes him as the “first gospel DJ of India”. On Instagram, he calls himself as the producer of the PIMP web series. For the uninitiated, the series, as the name suggests, seems to be a thriller of sorts with abundant nudity and was released in 2019. Timothy shuttles between Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Goa, Shirdi, and Nagpur, according to his Instagram profile, and is also a dirt bike racer.

Timothy was once a partner at Pinnacle Celebrity Management, a Mumbai-based company engaged in guest listing, events and appearances. The company claims to have a few Bollywood actors on its rolls and is promoted by Mumbai-based Santhosh Gupta. On the professional networking platform LinkedIn, Timothy calls himself a civil contractor, senior celebrity manager, drummer, racer, producer, and CEO apart from, of course, the first gospel DJ of India. A few of his songs are available on Sound Cloud.

Then there is the 33-year-old’s tryst with the travel and tourism industry. Timothy is the founder of Wintrip.in, a website that claims to offer cheap ticketing and travel options. The company offers everything from visa assistance to car rentals and air tickets, among others, and claims to be operational for 10 years.

But all that seems to pale in comparison to his latest adventure. Timothy is the chairman and managing director of WinAir, a Nagpur-based airline company that has agreed to acquire a 79 percent equity stake in Hyderabad-headquartered regional airline TruJet. TruJet is owned by Turbo Megha Airways Pvt Ltd, and WinAir is planning to spend some Rs200 crore to acquire the 79 percent stake in the parent company. The companies signed a term sheet on April 26 and are currently in the midst of technical due diligence before taking over operational control of the airline.

“By December, TruJet will fly 20 aircraft a day,” Timothy tells Forbes India over a telephone interview from Pune. After the acquisition, Timothy will be chairman and managing director of WinAir. “In the next 10-15 days, we will finish all the agreements, and we aim to make it easy for the public to experience air travel in the country. We don’t want to be an IndiGo or Air India,” he says.

WinAir Aviation Private Limited, headquartered in Nagpur, currently has six directors. That includes Timothy, his father Ranjan, sister Priscilla, COO Ram Sharma, and BR Shegokar, director for human resources. The company started by attempting to become what it called India’s first parallel airline, a concept where it would use the equipment and operating permits of an airline. By acquiring TruJet, however, that plan seems to have gone out of the window.  

24/05/22 Manu Balachandran/Forbes India

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