About Us

Deccan, India's first low fare and fastest growing airline was formed in 2003 with the vision to empower every Indian to fly by providing the lowest airfares and connectivity to unconnected towns and cities.

Deccan is a business unit of Deccan Aviation, India's largest private helicopter charter company, which pioneered helicopter tourism in India. In 1997, a group of old army buddies led by Capt. Gopi decided to pool in their vast experience and knowledge of aviation and geography to launch India's first Private sector helicopter charter company. Deccan Aviation was started in 1997 with one helicopter, it now has a fleet of 10 helicopters and 2 fixed wing aircraft deployed across eight bases at Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Surat, Katra and Colombo (Sri Lanka). Deccan Aviation provides helicopter charter services for a range of aviation activities like helicopter tourism, aerial coverage of sports events, heli- skiing and rappelling, aerial reconnaissance and photography, and also undertakes logistic support for off shore oil explorations, geophysical mineral survey, power line survey, emergency medical evacuation, V.I.P. movement, film production etc.

At the cusp of the new millennium; the idea of a low cost airline came to Capt. Gopi one day while flying from Bangalore to Goa. He noticed clusters of TV and dish antennas in the countryside and noticed similar sights again and again in towns and village hamlets across India. It then hit him that India is no longer a country of a billion hungry people to be fed on subsidies rather a country of a billion consumers, but somehow aviation remains outside the reach of the common man.

Dominated by government airlines and two exclusive private carriers, air travel was restricted to a prosperous minority. But with rising incomes and increased spending power of Indians, affordable and reliable air travel too has the potential to acquire a mass consumption base. Capt. Gopi however was not interested in building another Delhi - Mumbai airline; instead he wanted to harness the potential of a billion consumers including those who live in towns like Kolhapur, Gwalior or Belgaum.

The result was Deccan, India's first low cost, no frill airline, which was launched on the strength of a simple dream. A dream inspired by just one statement. "I want every Indian to fly at least once in his/ her lifetime."

Our first flight was launched on 23rd August 2003 from Bangalore to Hubli. From that day forward innovation and cost efficiency has been the cornerstone of our business philosophy and strategy. Our business model is robust, scalable and aligned to the dreams of nation building by making air travel a mass commodity.

We pride ourselves on our out of the box strategies which have created several firsts in Indian aviation and also made air travel affordable, available and easily accessible to the common man of India.

Deccan is moving towards a paradigm shift in its product offering and services at every Guest touch point. We will straddle and balance both value based services with affordable and competitive fares. Our new branding represents our vibrancy, youthfulness and commitment to serve you better.

More than ever, we are committed to upgrading the Deccan experience on ground and on board and offering our Guests increasing value for their money. Our new policies providing free travel for infants, greater ticketing flexibility along side new airport coaches, ticketing counters, plush aircraft interiors and complimentary water are some of the services that will add value to our Guests' Deccan experience.

More facilities and services are planned for the future. Our Guests can look ahead to a great Deccan experience every time they fly  us!!

Fleet:

We break the mould with our versatile fleet of modern airplanes comprising both Turboprops (ATR) and narrow bodies (Airbus-320). We operate a brand new fleet of 20 Airbus A- 320 aircraft with an average age of 1.5 years and 23 ATR Turboprop aircraft. It follows our strategy of connecting metro airports as well as small towns and Tier II cities that are often equipped with small airports or airfields. Our Airbus A-320 aircraft are utilized for long distances inter metro routes and connecting (via) flights. And the ATR aircraft are ideal for short flights and small airports like Kandla, Hubli, Kullu, and Rajahmundry to name a few.

How Deccan simplifies flying and provides low fares

Cost efficiency

Our relentless focus on low operating costs in all that we do, along with a high level of productivity ensures that our fares are the lowest. Our no frill model eliminates wastages and expense incurred on food and turnaround time. The time taken between two Deccan flights is 25 minutes compared to 45 minutes to 01 hour for a Full Service Airline (FSA). This enables our aircraft to fly longer- we fly 11 hours compared to 09 hours of other airline. We do not provide a business class, enabling more seats per aircraft. A FSA would have 150 seats on an Airbus 320 whereas Deccan has 180 seats on the same which is 20% more.

Lowest ever fares

We are the first airline to offer fares from Re 1/- to Rs 500/-. We follow a dynamic pricing strategy, wherein pricing is a function of demand and supply so the earlier one books the lesser one pays. We were the first airline to drop fares when fuel prices increased (and competitors increased fares).

Network

We have pried open the interiors of the country and integrated vast and varied destinations on an exhaustive route network. Deccan has helped to connect the common man by connecting him to small, unconnected towns and cities. Our route network is the largest in the country extending from Ahmedabad in the west to Baghdogra in the East and from Delhi in the North to Madurai in the South. We fly to 12 cities that are unconnected by any other airline. This includes cities like Kandla, Kolhapur, Tuticorin, Vijayawada, Bellary, Belgaum, Hubli, Rajahmundry to name a few, and the numbers are set to increase.

Booking

We have simplified the entire process air travel, beginning from getting information to booking flight tickets and/or rescheduling, cancellations, etc. We are the first airline in India to pioneer the concept of e-ticketing. A ticket on any Deccan flight can be purchased from anywhere in the world by logging on to our website www.airdeccan.net. To supplement our web enabled reservation system and to cater to growing demand for ticketing and information, we launched our own all India, 24/7 multilingual call centre (39008888) at Bangalore, in September 2003. These innovations make us the first airline in India to make available booking of tickets round the clock, daily.

Distribution Channels

We have put our entire reservation and ticketing inventory within easy reach of the common man. Our seven thousand distribution channels include grocery stores, India Post, HPCL petrol pumps, Reliance Webworlds, mobile ticket vans, travel agents, and travel websites apart from the traditional methods. These innovations are the first in India's aviation industry but have also become benchmarks for new as well as existing airlines.

Now in our 4th year of operation, we are the largest airline in terms of reach. We have eight aircraft bases across the country at Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Trivandrum and Chennai. Our fleet of 20 brand new Airbus A-320 aircraft with an average age of 1.5 years along with 23 ATR Turboprop aircraft is the backbone of our cost efficient, safe and reliable operations.

We have taken on the might of incumbent airlines and pioneered the fortunes of Indian Aviation, our business model is strategically evolved for the Indian market wherein it caters to both the top and the bottom line of the business spectrum and has achieved many successes in excellence.