SkyShuttle to launch shared business jet and chopper services next week

Mumbai: Air chartered services provider JetSetGo-owned SkyShuttle on Saturday announced the launch of its shared business jet and chopper services from Monday.

The Delhi-based non-scheduled carrier, in which cricketer Yuvraj Singh is one of the investors, will fly twice daily services to Tarapur in Maharashtra's Palghar district and neighbouring Vapi in Gujarat from the city's Juhu aerodrome with a five-seater Bell helicopter, JetSetGo chief executive and co-founder Kanika Tekriwal told PTI.

The Mumbai-Bangalore service will be catered by a jetliner, she added. The company wants to use learnings from these routes to further expand offerings across the country going forward, Tekriwal said adding, "We have the flexibility to expand with the demand. As demand increases, we can raise the size of the fleet as well as the number of trips."

The services will, however, come at a premium as a passenger chartering a seat on Juhu-Tarapore or Juhu-Vapi will have to shell out a whopping Rs 21,000-29,250 for a 45-minute journey to these destinations as against on an average two to two-and-half-hour by road.

The Mumbai-Bangalore will cost a passenger between Rs 21,950 and Rs 54,875, according to the company. But considering the time-saving, people will be "willing" to pay a premium, she said while justifying the high travel cost.

Admitting that the company is entering a new segment of the business when the jet fuel prices are escalating costs of air operators, she said, "We have to bite the bullet in terms of pricing as the numbers (jet fuel prices) were different when we did our mathematics 7-8 months ago."

Stating that the company was initially looking to expand more into tier 2 and tier 3 cities, such as Vijayawada and Ludhiana, which are grappling with the traffic congestion like some other cities, she said, "Delhi being an important market is also on the drawing board. But there are security concerns involving chopper operations, which we are working on."

The company is hoping to get 60-70 per cent load factor in the initial phase of the launch of services, she said. According to Sudheer Perla, co-founder of JetSetGo, "We are trying to expand our on demand air charters to a much broader market segment in a cost effective, seamless and a sustainable manner."