Indian regional airline Air Costa has applied for a new licence to fly across India within the next six-eight months with plans to compete with IndiGo and SpiceJet.
Under its current licence, the airline is constrained to flights within the southern region.
The airline operated its inaugural flight on Monday to Hyderabad from Vijaywada. It plans to start commercial flights from Tuesday and will operates 12 flights to six Indian cities — Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur, Hyderabad and Vijaywada.
The airline has two 80-seater Embraer 170 jets and plans to acquire eight 112-seater Embraer 190 planes by the end of 2014, enabling it to increase its number of daily flights to more than 60. Ultimately the airline seeks to increase its fleet to 25 aircraft by 2018.