India saw the launch of a new airline FLY91 on Tuesday. Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia virtually flagged off the regional airline that is backed by aviation veteran Manoj Chacko.

After its inaugural flight from Goa’s Mopa to Agatti in Lakshadweep on Tuesday, the airline’s officials said that it will begin its commercial services from March 18 with flights connecting Goa to Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

After the virtual inauguration, Scindia said, “Earlier in our country, airlines’ closure and bankruptcy used to be the news. In the past 10 years, the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a new dawn to this industry which resulted in the birth of six new regional airlines.”

Scindia also highlighted the multidimensional growth of civil aviation in the country. He reiterated the government’s commitment to connect tier 2 and tier 3 cities through the Udey Desh ka Aam Naagarik (UDAN) scheme and said that the aviation industry is expecting to raise its domestic traffic to 30 crores by 2030 which was just 6 crores in 2014.

FLY91 operates two ATR 72-600 aircraft, and the company is confident they will add six more planes within the next six months.

“Today marks a major milestone for FLY91 in our effort to make air travel more accessible as part of our vision for Bharat Unbound. We reiterate our commitment to our customers that FLY91 is aligned with the goal towards offering last mile connectivity and making air travel in India accessible, safe and reliable. We aim to be part of India’s ongoing economic transformation by creating robust regional connectivity which is crucial to economic growth,” said Manoj Chacko, managing director and chief executive officer, FLY9.

A veteran of the travel industry, Chacko earlier worked in senior leadership roles at Emirates Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, American Express, SOTC and WNS.

FLY91 chairman Harsha Raghavan said, “Today is the historic day Fly91 takes flight today first time with the hope to start many flights per day… our vision is to connect all the airports in the country.”

This comes after the aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted Air Operation Permit to it on March 6 for operating flights under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) and Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS).

The airline successfully completed the test flights or proving flights to secure the AOC. The airline will connect Sindhudurg, Jalgaon, Nanded in Maharashtra and Agatti in Lakshadweep under the regional connectivity scheme.