“We are not buying ATRs to conform to route disbursal guideline,” he stressed. However, many airlines are looking at small turbo-prop planes as an ideal way to satisfy route disbursal norms that currently require airlines to operate 10 per cent of their total flights to unprofitable routes like the north-east and other non-metro feeder routes.

The 66-seater ATRs which come in variants like ATR 42-500 and ATR 72-500 are much more economical to use as they consume lesser fuel and are best-suited for distances less than 500 nautical miles. “For a one hour flight, the cost of running a wide-bodied 180-seater plane like a Boeing or Airbus is approximately Rs 5 lakh. To recover this kind of cost, you need to charge something like Rs 3000 each and you will break even only at 100 per cent load factor,” explained the managing director of a regional airliner that is headquatered in Bangalore and is awaiting a license, which plans to run only ATRs.

On the other hand, an hour-long flight on an ATR would cost only Rs 1.5 lakhs and break-even would occur with a 70-80 per cent load factor. The government has also reduced sales tax on turbo props to 4 per cent. Airport and navigation charges are also exempt for regional airlines, making ATRs highly cost-efficient, he added.