Sirius India Airlines Pvt. Ltd, the entity set up by the spouses of two senior SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) executives, will partner with an private jet charter operator from the United Arab Emirates to introduce a "luxury private air travel brand" to the Indian market.
"Sirius India Airlines, in collaboration with Airavat Aviation, will initially operate flights through a Hawker 4000 aircraft, while it plans on expanding its fleet size to three aircraft in the coming months," the start-up said in an April 9 statement. "The joint venture aims to provide a one-stop solution in the segment of charter business, fractional ownership in India and globally."
In October 2023, ch-aviation reported that Meenakshi Kashyap, the wife of SpiceJet's then Chief Operating Officer Arun Kashyap, and Ajay Bhatia, husband of Chief Commercial Officer Shilpa Bhatia, had registered the unlisted private company to a North West Delhi address in mid-August. The entity's stated primary business activity is warehousing and aviation support activities, but almost immediately, Indian media outlets speculated that the newly-formed company was an airline start-up. In March, Arun Kashyap and Shilpa Bhatia resigned from SpiceJet over conflict-of-interest issues, with sources saying their positions had become untenable.
Sirius India Airlines says it will start out with the single Hawker 4000 but aims to expand to three by the end of 2024 and a dozen aircraft by the close of 2025, "ranging from nine-seaters to 100-seaters."
Airavat Aviation is a "luxury" air travel brand owned by Dubai-based Transworld Group. Airavat's website indicates it operates at least two Hawker 4000s, T7-TJ184 (msn RN-RC-72) and T7-TJ104 (msn RN-RC-25). Airavat/Transworld only moved into the private air travel space in 2023.
