India’s youngest regional carriers are turning to modern turboprops to stitch together a fragmented domestic map, and Goa based FLY91 is quickly emerging as one of the most closely watched players. With the lease of two additional ATR 72 600 aircraft and a clear plan to grow to a seven strong turboprop fleet by March 2026, the airline is using small, fuel efficient aircraft to reach cities that have long sat at the edge of India’s aviation boom. The expansion marks a significant step for domestic connectivity, promising more frequencies, more city pairs, and shorter door to door journeys for travelers who have traditionally depended on overnight trains or long road trips.
From Newcomer to Network Builder
FLY91 entered India’s crowded aviation market in March 2024 with a simple but ambitious promise: to be a pure play regional airline connecting tier 2 and tier 3 cities that larger jets overlook. Launching commercial operations from Manohar International Airport in North Goa, the carrier initially focused on short haul routes to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Sindhudurg and the Lakshadweep archipelago. Operating ATR 72 600 turboprops allowed the airline to keep its costs lean while serving relatively thin routes that could not justify larger narrow body aircraft.
Over its first year of operations the airline proved that there was real demand sitting just below the radar of established carriers. By March 2025 FLY91 had operated more than 3,500 flights and carried close to 170,000 passengers, while scaling up to around 100 weekly flights. That growth has not come through splashy metro to metro routes, but through careful layering of services that use Goa as a western India gateway and extend into emerging business and tourism centers in Maharashtra, Karnataka and beyond.
Positioning itself as a digital native airline without a traditional call center, FLY91 has also leaned on streamlined distribution and simple product offerings to keep overheads down. This efficiency has been critical to making regional turboprop flying viable in a country where price sensitivity is high and the cost base of many airlines has been under pressure. The result is a carrier that has moved rapidly from start up to serious regional contender in less than two years.
Fleet Expansion With New ATR 72 600 Turboprops
The latest chapter in FLY91’s story is centered on its growing fleet of ATR 72 600 aircraft. Originally launched with two aircraft, the airline has steadily invested in additional frames, both purchased and leased. By late 2025 its fleet had grown to four ATR 72 600s, with management setting a near term target of seven aircraft by the end of March 2026. That plan took a concrete step forward with the lease of two new ATR 72 600 turboprops from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, announced in early January 2026.
These additional aircraft, built at ATR’s manufacturing facility in Toulouse and expected to join the fleet in early 2026, will take FLY91’s active turboprop count to six. The airline is positioning this as a deliberate, measured expansion rather than a dash for scale at any cost. A mix of owned and leased aircraft gives FLY91 balance sheet flexibility while allowing it to respond to seasonal and structural demand in India’s fast evolving second tier markets.
Behind the fleet growth is a long term technical partnership with ATR itself. After signing a pay by the hour Global Maintenance Agreement in 2024 to support its initial aircraft, FLY91 has now extended that agreement for eight years. The arrangement covers key components, propeller services and on site support, giving the airline predictable maintenance costs and the ability to keep aircraft in the air rather than on the ground. For travelers, that translates into more reliable schedules and fewer disruptions as the network grows.
Why ATR 72 600 Turboprops Suit India’s Regional Map
The ATR 72 600 has become the workhorse of many regional airlines around the world, but its attributes are especially well suited to India. With around 70 seats and efficient turboprop engines optimized for short sectors, the aircraft can economically serve routes of 200 to 600 kilometers where demand is steady but not large enough to fill single aisle jets. Many of the runways in smaller Indian cities are shorter or have more restrictive infrastructure, something the ATR family is specifically designed to handle.
For FLY91, choosing ATR 72 600s is as much a network decision as it is a financial one. The aircraft’s low fuel burn and flexible performance allow the airline to open connections between coastal gateways like Goa or Kochi and inland towns such as Jalgaon, Sindhudurg or Solapur. These are sectors where rail journeys can take most of a day and road travel can be slowed by monsoon weather or congestion. A turboprop flight can cut travel times down to an hour or less, turning once occasional trips into regular business and leisure journeys.
The cabin of the ATR 72 600 is also a step above older generation turboprops. Larger overhead bins, quieter interiors and improved lighting help soften lingering passenger perceptions about small propeller aircraft. For many Indian flyers who may be boarding a turboprop for the first time, the experience is closer to that of a small jet than a throwback to the early days of regional flying. This perception shift is important if regional carriers are to convince travelers that flying between two smaller cities is not just faster, but also comfortable and reliable.
New Routes and Cities Enter the Domestic Grid
As the fleet expands, FLY91 is progressively weaving more cities into its route map. From its early focus on Goa, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the airline’s network has grown to include Pune, Jalgaon, Sindhudurg, Solapur and Agatti, with Kochi and additional Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh cities now in line for service. The planned induction of two new ATR 72 600s is directly tied to new routes and higher frequencies rather than simple aircraft rotation.
Among the most significant additions is the expansion into Hubballi in Karnataka, where FLY91 plans to base new services that will connect the city with Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Hubballi has long been an important commercial center that has not always been well served by air. The arrival of turboprop flights gives local businesses and residents faster access to South India’s technology and services hubs, reinforcing the city’s role as a regional gateway.
Elsewhere, the airline plans to launch services linking Hubballi and other cities to Vijayawada and Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, as well as Nanded and Dabolim in Maharashtra and Goa respectively. These connections, while modest in frequency, are transformative for travelers who have previously had to connect through crowded metro hubs or endure long overland journeys. For tourism centric markets such as Goa and the beaches of Sindhudurg, more direct flights also reduce seasonal bottlenecks and spread demand across the year.
Boosting Connectivity to Islands and Pilgrimage Hubs
FLY91’s network choices highlight a clear strategy: combine under served business centers with destinations of cultural and tourism significance. One of the headline examples is the carrier’s focus on connectivity to Lakshadweep. From its early Goa Agatti flights, the airline is now launching daily nonstop services between Kochi and Agatti, giving mainland travelers a more straightforward route to the islands for both leisure trips and essential local travel.
This approach extends inland as well. Routes from Goa to Solapur, Jalgaon and planned services to Nanded connect coastal holidaymakers with pilgrimage and heritage centers in Maharashtra. Solapur is not only an important textile and industrial city but also a gateway for pilgrims traveling to shrines such as Pandharpur, Tuljapur and Akkalkot. Regular turboprop flights allow both spiritual and business travelers to combine visits to these centers with easier access to beaches and leisure destinations.
By knitting together islands, coastal resorts, temple towns and emerging industrial hubs, FLY91 is effectively redrawing the mental map of domestic travel. Weekend itineraries that once required complex rail bookings can now be built around short hops on turboprops, encouraging more spontaneous trips and multi stop journeys. For the airline, this diversity of demand helps smooth seasonal peaks, with religious, leisure and business travel each propping up different routes at different times of the year.
Economic Ripple Effects in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Cities
The arrival of new ATR 72 600 aircraft is not just an aviation story; it carries tangible economic implications for the cities FLY91 serves. Direct flights tend to have a multiplier effect, attracting investment from hospitality, logistics and services sectors that depend on consistent connectivity. For smaller airports in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, new turboprop services can be the catalyst that turns a regional facility into a real transportation hub.
Shorter travel times broaden labor markets, allowing professionals to commute between cities that were previously considered separate economic zones. A business owner in Jalgaon can now feasibly attend a mid week meeting in Goa and return the same day. Tech workers in Bengaluru can explore opportunities in emerging industrial centers without committing to overnight journeys. Over time these patterns support the spread of economic activity beyond the large metros, one of the core goals of India’s regional connectivity policies.
Tourism also stands to benefit. Additional flights into coastal and heritage destinations allow hotels and tour operators to design more flexible packages, including shoulder season promotions that make better use of existing infrastructure. Local artisans, guides and small businesses gain access to a larger pool of visitors, and the risk of seasonal boom and bust cycles becomes less severe when travelers can more easily come year round instead of only during peak holidays.
Keeping Fares Accessible While Growing Fast
Rapid expansion can raise concerns about rising fares or uneven service quality, but FLY91 is signaling that affordability remains central to its business model. By keeping its operations focused on a single aircraft type, the airline simplifies crew training, maintenance and scheduling. This single fleet strategy, combined with ATR’s maintenance support, allows the carrier to extract more utilization from each turboprop and spread fixed costs across a growing network.
The airline has already experimented with fare promotions such as seasonal discounts and convenience fee waivers to encourage first time flyers and stimulate demand on new routes. Turboprops inherently have a lower cost per trip on short sectors than many jets, and that efficiency gives airlines more room to price competitively, particularly on sectors under one hour in the air. For price sensitive travelers shifting from rail or road, the incremental fare premium can be offset by savings in time, accommodation and lost productivity.
Of course, maintaining low fares also depends on factors outside the airline’s direct control, including fuel prices, airport charges and regulatory fees. Yet a well utilized fleet of modern ATR 72 600s gives FLY91 a strong base from which to navigate these variables. The key will be balancing capacity and demand so that new routes are nurtured carefully rather than flooded with seats before local markets have time to mature.
What FLY91’s Turboprop Push Means for Indian Travelers
As FLY91’s sixth ATR 72 600 joins the fleet and more routes come online in 2026, the practical impact for travelers will be measured in options and time saved. Passengers living in cities like Hubballi, Nanded or Rajahmundry will gain more direct options to reach coastal and metropolitan centers without the need to backtrack through congested hubs. For island communities in Lakshadweep and coastal towns along the Konkan belt, more frequent services add a layer of resilience to local economies that depend heavily on connectivity.
The growth of modern turboprop operations also contributes to a more balanced domestic aviation ecosystem. Rather than funneling all traffic through a handful of megacities, regional carriers like FLY91 can absorb local demand, freeing up capacity at larger airports and giving major airlines room to focus on trunk and international routes. For the traveling public, that can mean fewer missed connections, shorter queues and more rational routing choices across the country.
In many ways, the story of FLY91’s ATR 72 600 expansion is a test case for how India can use regional aircraft to bridge the gap between its infrastructure ambitions and on the ground realities. If the airline can sustain reliable operations, keep fares accessible and continue opening new city pairs at a thoughtful pace, travelers will be the clear winners. More direct flights, more manageable journeys and a domestic map that feels smaller and more connected will be the lasting legacy of this turboprop driven push into India’s regional skies.