VRL Logistics’ promoters plan to commence airline

The Dollar Business Bureau

VRL Logistics’ promoters are planning to start a regional airline. The Chairperson Vijay Sankeshwar and Managing Director Anand Sankeshwar of the company said that they would establish a distinct company to start the airline.

“This in-principle decision has been taken after a lot of research and after taking inputs from industry experts,” the promoters said while filing to the stock exchanges.

“We plan to launch the new airline and hire a professional management team to manage the daily operations and enhance this business,” it said.

On the issue of finance, they said, “We are internally considering the financing methods for this venture. The management should take into consideration that we may sell a portion of our shareholdings in the company in order to fund our civil aviation venture.

“Even after selling a portion of stake, we will continue to hold a majority share in VRL Logistics,” they said.

To clarify, the promoters said that launching such a regional airline is subject to various approvals from government and regulatory bodies and their intent should not be taken as an eventual surety of starting a regional airline company.

Based in Hubbali, Karnataka, VRL Logistics provides passenger and goods transport solutions and also parcel delivery service. At present, the company has a fleet of 4,107 vehicles that includes 368 vehicles for passenger transport and 3,739 vehicles for goods transport.

The company has a turnover of Rs.1,700 crore annually. It has an air charter unit based in Bengaluru and manages two Premier 1A jets. The air charter division made about Rs.12 crore during the financial year 2015-16.

Currently, there are three regional airlines operating in the country —Air Pegasus, Air Costa and TruJet.