Surat-based diamond players seem to be playing a torch-bearer for India’s aviation sector.

At a time, when commercial airlines are infamous for charging exorbitantly high fares for last-moment bookings and still crib about the financial stress, intra-State airline operating from Surat, Ventura Airconnect, has announced a slash in fares by one-third to make air travel possible for a larger population and still be profitable.

Started by diamond merchants of Surat, Diamond Aeronautics owns majority stake in Ventura Airconnect, which connects Surat to Bhavnagar and Rajkot with a fleet of two 9-seater Cessna (single turboprop) 208B Grand Caravans.

Captain Kartikey Garasiya, CEO of Diamond Aeronautics, informed that air fare between Surat and Bhavnagar will be reduced to ₹2,000 per person (excluding taxes) from ₹3,000 currently, while that for Rajkot will remain unchanged at ₹5,000. “The new fares will be made effective June 17. By lowering the fares, we want to make air travel possible for more people. This will save time especially during monsoon,” Capt Kartikey told BusinessLine .

With monsoon approaching and road travel becoming more time-consuming, air journey will cut travel duration between Surat and Bhavnagar to merely 20-25 minutes from 8-12 hours.

People-centric “We want to make it more people-centric than profit-centric. In fact, even after lowering the fares, we will still be in profit,” said Ishwar Dholakiya, MD of Diamond Aeronautics. Diamond Aeronautics has leading diamond players as its majority shareholders.

The airline said they are managing costs by making best use of available resources and avoiding unnecessary splurge by staff.

According to statistics shared by the airline, since the start of operations in December 2014, the airline has carried 8,570 passengers till now, with average occupancy of around 80 per cent. This month, the airline has carried about 640 passengers with average occupancy of 74 during this month.

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