Air Deccan, the low-cost domestic airline, has planned to increase by December its daily flights from 70 to 100 as well as to secure a part of the "ethnic market" of West Asia in the foreseeable future, managing director G R Gopinath said in Chennai.

"Our airline is so powerful in its business module that red-tape has been converted into red-carpetism," Gopinath, told reporters on the occasion of the airline's inaugural Airbus A-320 flight on the Chennai-New Delhi route on Sunday.

Air Deccan creates history

"Our slogan is to make every Indian fly and as part of the strategy, we have introduced the Dyna fares, under which the fares ranged from Rs 500 plus taxes to Rs 6600 on the Chennai-Delhi sector," he said.

He explained that 25 per cent of the 180 seats in an Airbus would be available to passengers at low-cost, provided the bookings were made three months in advance. "The module is so strong that no bureaucratic wrangle from any quarters can hamper our growth," he said.

"Our main objective is to connect all unconnected parts of the country, apart from the metros, and offer passengers the lowest possible fares," he said.

Air Deccan, the Bangalore-based 'no-frills' airline, is an enterprise of ex-army and defence officers. It was launched last year with a dream and vision to enable common people to fly not only between metropolitan cities but also to and from smaller cities.

It will be launching flights from New Delhi to Dehradun, Ludhiana, Agra, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kulu, Shimla and other small cities by the end of next month, Gopinath said.

The country has nearly 400 small and medium sized airports, which are now unconnected. One hundred and fifty aircraft and 15 million people travel by air every year.

Air Deccan, a subsidiary of Deccan Aviation, the country's largest private sector helicopter charter company, and pioneers of heli-tourism in India, has signed for 11 Airbuses of which four would join the fleet by March 2005.

It has seven ATRs (Avions de Transport Regionale) now and five more will join the fleet in the last quarter of this calendar. The airline expects to clock a revenue of $125 million and carry close to two million passengers by March 2005, according to airline sources.