Star Air (India) (S5, Belgaum) has recently been hiring ground and cabin staff ahead of its planned launch on three routes out of Hubli in the south-western Indian state of Karnataka, the Bangalore Mirror has reported. Its maiden services are planned under the umbrella of UDAN, the Indian government's subsidy scheme for flights to un- or underserved airports.
The Indian start-up backed by the Sanjay Ghodawat Group had previously planned to launch in February 2018 using two E145s. Despite the delay, the carrier has not changed its fleet plans, although it is currently unclear when exactly it plans to start operations.
During the second round of UDAN/RCS route allocations in early 2018, the start-up has won rights to fly out of Hubli to each of Tirupati, Ghaziabad, and Pune.
Previously, Star Air had also announced plans to launch purely commercial routes not covered by the UDAN scheme, such as flights out of Belgaum to each of Mumbai International, Delhi International, Chennai, and Tirupati. It is unclear at this moment whether the carrier still intends to expand in such a way and when that would happen.
