GoAir has added its 13th aircraft and launched a Bangalore-Goa route designed for businessmen. The company said that this flight will leave Bangalore early in the morning and return the same night.

Announcing the launch of the new flight, Giorgio De Roni, chief executive officer of GoAir, said the unlisted company posted impressive profits for the June quarter. “Q2 (the September quarter) is the weakest, but we feel that we can deliver a profit,” he said.

Talking on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the airline industry, De Roni said, “I hope that the government will approve FDI in airlines. India is in the middle of the strongest growth rate and FDI may help the industry to grow.”

The government has mandated that Indian airline companies who want to operate on international routes should have operated for a minimum of five years and have at least 20 aircraft. “The government, however, allows international operators to fly to India even if they have just one aircraft,” he said.

While GoAir has requested the government to relax these requirements, De Roni said, the company will be able to acquire 20 aircraft from July 2014 and meet the government requirement if it remains in force.

Tier II and III cities are showing more dynamic growth than metros and GoAir is looking at the possibility of using different aircraft for these cities, said De Roni.

Thanks to a 22 per cent capacity increase, GoAir, which flew around three million passengers last year, would be flying about five million this year.

De Roni was critical of Delhi Airport and said that, to the best of his knowledge, it was the only one in the world which charged a fee on arriving passengers.

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