Air Costa was a regional airline operating in India. The airline's headquarters were in Vijayawada in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, which is located in southeastern India. In addition to its hub at Vijayawada Airport (VGA), the airline also operates a hub at Chennai International Airport (MAA). Commencing operations in 2013, Air Costa flew commercially for more than three years until 2017. Unfortunately, the airline announced that they would suspend operations due to financial difficulties which have made leasing aircraft nearly possible.

Founding

An Indian company, the Lingamanemi Estates Private Limited (LEPL) Group, decided to found an airline in 2012 to fly regional services within India. The state of Andhra Pradesh was the tenth-largest state and had 50 million inhabitants, but lacked regional air services. The LEPL Group, therefore, founded Air Costa to fill this void in the market.

The company first received approval from the government when it received a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation of India in February 2012. Then, the airline received the final go-ahead from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) when Air Costa was given an Air Operators' Permit (AOP) in September 2013.

At the time of the airline's founding, there were plans to operate two main hubs, at Chennai (MAA) and at Hyderabad (HYD). In addition, Air Costa was planning to fly to larger cities such as Bangalore (BLR), Ahmedabad (AMD), and Jaipur (JAI), as well as smaller (only by comparison) cities like Madurai (IXM) and Thiruvananthapuram (TRV)

Air Costa Embraer aircraft on the groun
Air Costa operated small, regional Embraer jets. Photo: Magnetic Manifestations via Wikimedia Commons.

Initial Services

The airline began services in October 2013 as a regional airline. It initially used two Embraer E-170 aircraft from its hub at Chennai, with its first flight bound for Jaipur on October 16th, 2013. In addition to connecting major cities in India, Air Costa was committed to flying between tier II and tier III cities to improve connectivity outside of major metropolitan areas.

Following the success of its first months of operations, Air Costa purchased 50 Embraer E-Jets E2 at the Singapore Airshow on February 13th, 2014. The 50-aircraft order was reportedly worth a staggering $2.94 billion. Embraer decided to cancel the 50-aircraft order in 2018 after the airline suspended operations.

Continued expansion

Air Costa, in September 2015, decided to apply for a national airline license. Its initial AOP, which was granted in 2013, only allowed the airline to fly within a specific region. Becoming a national airline would enable Air Costa to add more destinations and offer more routes to customers. Air Costa received its NOC for upgrading the license to a national airline on December 19th, 2015. The airline planned to increase the number of aircraft in its fleet as a result of an expected increase in the number of routes and destinations served. In late 2015, Air Costa planned to acquire an additional three to five E-190 aircraft in 2016.

Financial collapse

Air Costa announced that it had suspended all operations on February 17th, 2017. This was due to financial issues with the aircraft leasing company GECAS, which had been unresolved. As a result, the aircraft which Air Costa had leased from different leasing companies was returned, and the airline could no longer operate services.