Return Flight: Parvez Damania visits grounded Air Pegasus

MUMBAI: Indian businessman Parvez Damania, who had started the short-lived but high-end-for-its-time carrier Damania Airways in the nineties, visited the grounded Air Pegasus sparking interest if the flamboyant businessman was looking to invest in the sector again.
Damania last month visited grounded southern regional carrier Air Pegasus which has been struggling for funds, delaying payments and trying to raise cash to set the airline flying again. It cancelled flights indefinitely on July 27. Two of its three leased ATR aircraft have were reposessed by Dublin-based lessor Elix Aviation for nonpayment of rentals.

The talks didn’t progress and both sides had different versions regarding the reasons.

"I visited them the very next day after they grounded flights," Damania told ET on Wednesday.

He claimed that Air Pegasus did not have a business proposal that he found feasible to invest in. "They had no papers or firm documents or plans to show. It was just a discussion across the dining table. I told them running an airline is not so easy," he said. "I really do hope the airline resumes its operations. An airline shutting down reflects badly on the aviation industry," he added.

When contacted, the airline's managing director Shyson Thomas was dismissive. "I was unwell when Damania came to meet my son (Ashwin Thomas, director at Air Pegasus). It was he who came with a proposal. I have no intentions to sell to him and I don’t think he has the money. I forbade my son to show any documents or papers or plans," he said.

Thomas said the airline has roped in a Singapore-based PE investor and is selling over 30% stake in the airline. He didn't elaborate on the valuation or the name of the investor but said the airline will resume operations in a few weeks.

On his part, Damania said he has no firm plans to start another airline. A regular at page 3 parties and said to be well networked in business circles, Damania and his brother Vispi started Damania Airways in 1993 with two leased Boeing 737 aircraft. These were the days when corporate India, including the aviation sector, had been opened to private investment. The government's move saw the quick takeoffs of airlines such as Damania, Modiluft, EastWest, Continental and Jet Airways into the skies to challenge the monopoly of state-run Air India.

A veteran travel executive said Damania Airways was the most premium offering of the lot. It was also the first to serve alcohol on board. "It had all the bells and whistles. The cabin crew fawned over you. You could see it would never sustain," he added. Sure enough, Damania sold the airline to the Khemkas' owned NEPC group in 1995. The airlines shut down in 1997. Other airlines too died quick deaths.

The only one from the lot to survive and grow was Jet Airways, currently India’s second biggest carrier. Modiluft changed hands and shape and now flies as SpiceJet. Damania later joined Kingfisher Airlines in its initial days and then Air Sahara.