Ventura AirConnect (Ahmedabad) has been named as the tentative winner of a Gujarat government tender to operate subsidized scheduled passenger services within the west Indian state.
Using a pair of Cessna (single turboprop) Grand Caravan 208Bs, the carrier will offer regular connectivity from the state's smaller towns and city centres, to the larger cities of Ahmedabad and Surat.
"Ventura will connect Surat to Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar, and Ahmedabad with Bhuj, Keshod, Kandla, Surat, Porbandar, and Rajkot," Kartikey Garasia, CEO Ventura AirConnect, told the Times of India. "We plan to add three more aircraft. We have placed the order for Diamond 42 aircraft, which is expected to arrive from the US soon."
The announcement comes after two previous attempts at launching domestic services within the state - in 2014 with Ventura AirConnect and in 2015 with GSEC Aviation (Ahmedabad) and Mehair (Mumbai International) - failed to garner sufficient demand.
