CHENNAI: The Chennai-based Paramount Airways, which is now flying six daily services with its lone Embraer aircraft, will operate 24 flights a day, linking Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi.

These services from the Chennai Kamaraj Domestic Terminal are planned from the first week of March. The airline will induct its second Brazilian Embraer 72-seater jet on February 22.

"In all real terms, Paramount Airways will link all major Southern Indian points with only Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangalore yet to be connected," M. Thiagarajan, Managing Director, told The Hindu here on Thursday.

Mr. Thiagarajan said the airline would operate flights thrice daily to Bangalore, twice to Hyderabad and once to Kochi. "We will be flying 1,700 passengers daily as against the present 420." The airline would continue to adopt an "aggressive, market-driven pricing policy" to become more visible in the domestic skies.

Mr. Thiagarajan said the induction of the second Embraer jet would facilitate convenient connections to Hyderabad, Kochi and Chennai from Bangalore. As part of its efforts to augment fleet strength, the airline would sign a deal with Embraer to acquire 15 new jets, upgrading the airline with twin-class seating configuration, adding first class.

The new 10 Embraer-195 jets would offer 15 first class and 84 business class seats, and five Embraer-175 would offer 11 first class and 64 business class seats.

The Rs.2, 250-crore deal will be signed on February 21 at the Asian Aerospace Exposition to be held in Singapore.

The airline has ordered five Embraer aircraft at a cost of Rs.840 crores. Of these, only one is in its possession.

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