Air Kerala plans domestic services

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The Air Kerala proposal gained further momentum at Emerging Kerala 2012 as NRK top guns agreed on a concerted effort to start the budget airline, with intra-state services and services to Bengaluru and Chennai.

A board meeting of the company here on Friday decided to meet its Rs 200-crore capital through contributions of a minimum Rs 10,000 from small investors in the Gulf.

Besides, to meet the Centre’s stipulation that any airline seeking to fly international should have domestic services, a few services would be started initially.

The proposal received special applause at a special session with leading NRK businessmen Ravi Pillai, M.A. Yusuffali and C.K. Menon, who all offered contributions from more than 50,000 people in the Gulf.

Mr Yusaffali also wanted the state government to consider an NRK infrastructure bond assuring investors fair returns. This could be put to good use by the government which had little money for infrastructure investment.

He also mooted an NRK bank and that the government should take up with the Reserve Bank, which had a fairly relaxed policy now.

Mr Mohammed Ali of the Galfar Group proposed that the share of NRK in the infrastructure company of the government, Inkel, be either bought out by the government or privatized. He also suggested reviving the idea of a luxury shipping service to the Gulf.

Mr Oommen Chandy assured NRKs that their demands would be considered and an update of proposals that came up at Emerging Kerala would be put out.