Paramount Airways was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

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. It operated scheduled services, mainly targeting business travellers until it ceased operations in 2010. Its hub was

Chennai International Airport Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. It is located in Tirusulam in Chengalpattu district, in the Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area around southwest of the c ...

and was the first airline in India to launch the New Generation Embraer 170/190 Family series aircraft. The airline started operations in October 2005 with the company headquartered in

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

. It operated to regional destinations in south and eastern India until early 2010.

Decline

The airline ceased operations when legal issues arose between Paramount Airways and the lessors of their Embraer aircraft. These events caused a gradual termination of all services as the fleet was grounded and seized by the leasing companies. In November 2010, it was announced that Paramount Airways had won their legal battle and were set to resume services with a fleet of

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

and Bombardier aircraft. Normalisation of the route network was scheduled for December 2010, but did not materialise.Paramount Airways to take to the skies again
/ref> A British court awarded the airline Rs 1,650 crore as compensation in a lawsuit with

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company i ...

in November 2012. Paramount renewed its operating licence from the DGCA in the same month and planned to start afresh, initially concentrating on its earlier stronghold of the southern Indian states and also Mysore, Tuticorin and Puducherry. However, its lenders including

Bank of India Bank of India (BoI) is an Indian public sector bank headquartered in Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Founded in 1906, it has been government-owned since nationalisation in 1969. BoI is a founding member of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Inter ...

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational Public sector undertakings in India, public sector bank and financial service body headquartered in Mumbai. It is the largest bank in India with a 23% market shar ...

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Andhra Bank Andhra Bank was a medium-sized public sector bank (PSB) of India, with a network of 2885 branches, 4 extension counters, 38 satellite offices and 3798 automated teller machines (ATMs) as of 31 March 2019. During 2011–12, the bank entered th ...

Indian Bank Indian Bank is an Indian public sector bank, established in 1907 and headquartered in Chennai. It serves over 100 million customers with 40,002 employees, 5,901 branches with 5,268 ATMs and Cash deposit machines. Total business of the bank has ...

and

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to whom Paramount owed around Rs. 550 Crore, wrote to the DGCA in February 2013, asking the regulator to prevent the airline from restarting operations before it settled its dues. The airline planned to restart operations by May 2013 with six ATR-72-600 aircraft, however, six banks that had extended loans to the airline wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation asking the regulator to prevent the airline from restarting operations before it settled its dues. On 6 May 2016, The CBI has registered a case against promoters of Paramount Airways on allegations of defrauding, diverting loan amount, and cheating public sector banks. Searches were being carried out at seven locations at Chennai and Madurai, including residential and office premises of its promoter Thyagrajan and the company functionaries.

Destinations

Paramount Airways mainly provided services to cities in South India. In 2009. it extended services into eastern India, serving the cities of

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, and

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Fleet

The Paramount Airways fleet consisted of Embraer E170s, and was the first airline in India to operate this aircraft. On 20 June 2009, Paramount Airways signed a MoU to buy ten

Airbus A321-200 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

aircraft with an option for an additional ten. The agreement was concluded at the 48th

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...

and was to be funded by the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

. It also ordered six

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longvi ...

s. However, the deals did not materialise.

Awards and recognition

*Paramount Airways won the "Arch of Europe" Award in the year 2007 in Frankfurt. *Paramount Airways was awarded the "Award of Excellence" conferred by the Institute of Economic Studies

References

External links

Official websiteParamount Airways fleetParamount Embraer 175 at Bangalore
{{Airlines of India Defunct airlines of India Airlines established in 2005 Airlines disestablished in 2010 Indian companies disestablished in 2010 Indian companies established in 2005 Companies based in Chennai 2005 establishments in Tamil Nadu