Turbo Aviation (Hyderabad International) has secured GBP100 million pounds (USD131 million) in funding from a UK-based group which will allow it to speed-up its plans to launch a new low-cost carrier, to be known as TruStar, in mid-2020.

Speaking to India's Business Standard newspaper, the new LCC's founder, Vankayalapati Umesh, suggested that the UK strategic investor's funding is to be made available over five years and that it will acquire a majority stake in Hyderabad-based Turbo Aviation.

"We have signed an agreement with a large UK business group to dilute majority stake in Turbo Aviation in its favour. We will announce the name of our partner and other details once the security clearances are in place," said Umesh.

The still-to-fly TruStar, under the guise Turbo Aviation, has already been awarded numerous routes across a variety of Indian states including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) - also known as Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN). The routes awarded to Turbo Aviation as part of UDAN III were:

TruStar intends to launch operations in February/March 2020, with an initial fleet of five ATR - Avions de Transport Régional turboprops and five A320s. Ultimately, the LCC plans to have a fleet of ten ATRs, ten A320s, as well as four 'made in India' Do228s, which are being built by Hindustan Aeronautics. TruStar plans to deploy the Dorniers to certain airfields in Uttar Pradesh which are inaccessible to the larger ATRs.

While explaining the logic for the start-up, Umesh, who still retains a 6-7% stake in TruJet (TRJ, Hyderabad International), said: "At present, there are only four big airline companies operating in India. Obviously there is a scope for new players in this growing sector. The country has already added 40-50 new airports for expansion of domestic air travel under the UDAN and there will be more airports in future."