Air Deccan
Captain Gopinath, the founder of Air Deccan, is the pioneer of budget airlines in India. He started with the dream of bringing air travel within the reach of the common man and in 2003, Deccan became the first low-cost airline to fly pan-India. It is also the first airline to fly to second tier cities like Hubli, Madurai and Visakhapatnam from major cities like Bangalore and Chennai.
With its recent merger with Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan was renamed Deccan, with SimpliFly as its tagline.
Deccan has 41 aircraft in its fleet consisting of 48-seater ATR-42s, along with a 180-seater Airbus A-320s. The airline has recently acquired an ATR 72-500 aircraft. It flies to 65 cities across India and is all set to fly to international destinations. Deccan's main base is Bangalore.
G R Gopinath, the father of low-cost airline boom.
Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
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