Now, book air taxi from Sahnewal

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 16

In a first for Punjab, a newly launched start-up venture is offering luxury air travel from Sahnewal to the rest of the world.

Angad Dhaliwal, Head of Business Development of the start- up company Jet Smart, said the concept will cater to the rising demand of residents who complain that despite having a domestic airport, Ludhiana has no air connect with the rest of the country.

Dhaliwal, who has studied political sciences and marketing in the US, said: “Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Bathinda have a huge potential for the cities being industrial hubs and have a large NRI population. Many foreign delegations keep visiting Ludhiana and Jalandhar in connection with their businesses. Private planes of Jet Smart will fly passenger from Sahnewal Airport to any part of India and even abroad. The company will also providing pick-and-drop facility in a luxury vehicle.”

Dhaliwal claimed that the company had got all clearances from the aviation authorities. “Several aircraft (a majority of them small 10-seat planes) have been hired from renowned aviation companies who have a qualified pilots and crew as also approval by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,” said Angad, son of a senior Punjab police official.

In a country with more than 450 airports, fewer than 30 per cent are operational. An astonishing 70 per cent of all air traffic in the country is concentrated in the top seven metro airports, added Angad.

“Punjab caters to a huge NRI population. A majority of NRIs have no other option but to land in Delhi and travel all the way to Punjab by bus or taxis. But with Jet Smart, NRIs just have to land here and board a charted aircraft which will take them to the nearest airport and then a luxury vehicle will drop them home,” said Angad.

He said in the service provided by the Jet Smart model, passenger would not have to wait at the airport for catching a flight. “For us customer is king. A passenger will fix the time of departure and the flight will take of accordingly,” said Angad, adding that the platform enables individuals to use their credit cards to book charters or individual seats on a wide range of business aircraft. To further facilitate payments, a system of equated monthly instalments, keeping in view the aspirational class, has been developed as well.

Erfan Haque, CEO of Jetsmart.in, said: “We see India’s aviation potential standing at the crossroads, much as the telecom/mobile industry was in the late 1990s and the television media industry, a decade before that. India is on the cusp of being an aviation super power and we intend to be there on the stage when it happens”.