After years of poor air connectivity, the Northeast will finally see a regional player take the skies, challenging the notion that this sector is an unprofitable goner. Skyking Aviation, a year-old Shillong-based company, has secured a no-objection certificate from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to start flying in all the seven states.

This is the first time that a private carrier has been allowed to operate in the Northeast. The services, scheduled to start by December, will connect 10 destinations. In the first phase, the low-cost airline will fly daily to cities including Aizwal, Agartala, Imphal, Dibrugarh, Lilabari, and Barapani with Guwahati as the main hub. The second phase will connect destinations like Bagdogra, Jorhat and Gangtok. Fares will hover in the range of Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000.

Ronal Rickman Sangma, Skyking’s promoter and one of the directors said discussions are on with Singapore’s GE Capital Aviation Services, a unit of GE Capital Services, to raise funds and lay out the financial plan. “We plan to take three aircraft on lease to start with and add two more within the next six months,” he said. The other promoter is Chinku Gare Momen.

The company is already in negotiations to take on lease one five-year-old 35-seater and four 50-seater Bombardier aircraft. It is also talking to Lufthansa and other companies in the UK, Canada and Germany for leasing planes. There are 25 airports in the Northeast and three more are being developed in Gangtok, Kohima and Itanagar, capitals of Sikkim, Nagaland and AP, respectively.