The Hindu Business Line : Paramount links Chennai and Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad, Sept. 24 Premium airline Paramount Airways today connected its tenth destination and first in western region, Ahmedabad, to its base terminal, Chennai. The flight leaves Chennai at 9.30 a.m. and reaches Ahmedabad at 11.40 a.m. It departs from Ahmedabad at 12.10 p.m. and reaches Chennai at 2.20 p.m.

With this the total flights operated by the airline in a day has increased to 48.

Speaking to Business Line on board the flight to Ahmedabad, the Managing Director of Paramount Airways, Mr M. Thiagarajan, said the airline connects four southern cities – Kochi, Coimbatore, Madurai and Thiruvananthapuram to Ahmedabad.

In the southern region the company has adopted the strategy of “saturating and dominating the market.” Beginning 2005, the airline today connects nine cities in the region. Despite sluggish trends in the airline industry Paramount has been profitable as the average occupancy rate was more than 70 per cent, he said.

This was primarily due to the use of Embraer aircraft, which are fuel efficient.

Paramount would replicate its strategy in the western region also before connecting other regions, Mr Thiagarajan, said. The company would be looking at corporates, small and medium enterprises, traders and entrepreneurs as its targeted passenger segments. Within a month the airline would connect Goa and Pune and Mumbai in early November. It would cover the western region before end of 2009 and latter connect destinations in North and Northeast, he said.

In order to retain customers the company introduced loyalty programme – ‘Paramount Royale’. Besides, it has also introduced the ‘boutique concept’ in association with AVA Merchandising, offering on-board shopping experience for the passengers, he said. Currently the airline has five aircraft and two more would join the fleet by December, he added.