India's first air taxi service Launched from Chandigarh to Hisar

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday inaugurated the country’s first small aircraft air taxi service. This was a part of Centre’s UDAN scheme. The first phase will have air taxi services operating from Chandigarh to Hisar.

“For the first time in the country, a small aircraft in the form of an air taxi is being used for services,” said Khattar at the inauguration ceremony of the air taxi service.

On January 18, the air taxi service will begin its second phase. For this phase, rides would be made available between Hisar to Dehradun. The third phase will begin on January 23 and two more routes will be added to the air taxi service. These are Chandigarh to Dehradun and Hisar to Dharamshala.

“The company also plans to include Shimla, Kullu and more Haryana routes,” added Khattar. The air taxi service will be operated by AirTaxi India which was granted the Scheduled Commuter Airline Permit by the Indian aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) back in December. The airline reportedly has 26 routes in regional connectivity scheme (RCS) UDAN.

The government is offering per seat subsidy to airliners in order to connect cities with smaller towns.

AirTaxi has stated that it has a fleet of Tecnam P2006T aircrafts, a twin-engine four-seat plane, which have been produced by Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam.