An Indian royal is banking on his heritage to fill seats in his latest venture - a luxury domestic airline that will even have a separate cabin for servants.
Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wodeyar is still deciding whether to call his new venture Sky Palace or Palace in the Sky. But if all goes according to plan, his airline will in late 2006 or 2007 start flying wealthy Indians between the country's cities.
Wodeyar, who will be the airline's chairman, would be the maharaja of Mysore, in southern India, if the country's socialist-inspired constitution hadn't dispensed with such titles in 1950.
But the old royal families still have cachet, and Wodeyar is hoping his name will lend the airline an aristocratic air that will help it fill a niche in India's expanding air travel market, which for decades was largely dominated by state-owned airlines.
The government opened the market in the 1990s and several new budget carriers have been driving down prices and attracting first-time flyers, leading aviation experts to forecast 25 per cent a year growth for the industry.
Wodeyar is hoping to cash in on that growth. But his airline will be anything but budget.
"We're targeting the type or person who drives in a Mercedes," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Mysore.
The bulk of the seats will essentially be what other airlines sell as first class -- seats will be 54 inches (137 centimeters) wide, about triple the standard 18-inch (46-centimeter) economy seat, he said, adding that fares will be competitive for their class.
There will, however, be an economy cabin of between eight and 15 seats "for servants," Wodeyar said.
"There are people who many want to travel with one or two servants," he explained. "But they don't have to fly in the same cabin."
Details are still being worked out, but he said the startup cost should be about $100 million and that initially the airline will have only two planes. The fleet should grow to 21 jets within the first 18 months of operation, he said, adding that the airline would eventually fly to more than three dozen cities.
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