IndiaOne Air (I7, Ahmedabad) has been granted an air operator's certificate (AOC) by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and plans to launch commercial services this month, according to Chief Executive Officer Arun Kumar Singh.

"I am happy to share with you that IndiaOne Air received its AOC in June 2022," he said. "We are looking forward to a successful commercial launch soon. IndiaOne Air is going to be the first airline in Indian civil aviation history to operate scheduled flights with single-engine aircraft."

As reported, the startup will operate a fleet of three Cessna (single turboprop) Caravan 208Bs.

The airline was not immediately available for official comment.

In an interview with Smart Aviation Asia Pacific, Singh said the AOC was issued on June 24 following the successful proving flight of its first aircraft, VT-HJS (msn 208B5669), from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. The unit arrived in India on April 23 and has been at the airline's Ahmedabad base but would now be repositioned to Bhubaneshwar, he said.

The second Cessna Caravan, VT-KSS (msn 208B5680), has been accepted for delivery from Cessna Aircraft Company/Textron Aviation in the US and is expected to be ferried to India later this month, he said. A third aircraft is still in production and will be delivered later this year.

Whilst the Cessna Caravan is rated for single-pilot operations, he explained that regulations in India require two pilots to operate scheduled flights. The aircraft are also equipped with cockpit voice and data recorders.

According to Singh, IndiaOne Air plans to start services this month after its security programme is approved by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

The carrier will use its first two aircraft for daily return flights, seven days a week, between:

Singh is optimistic about the prospects for regional aircraft in India in the next two decades and for servicing tier-two and tier-three cities in the country.