Star air is now ready for take off by 25th Jan 2019- finally

Star Air will be the newest airline in India’s domestic airlines industry. I was tracking Star Air for over an year now- they had their website up n partially running and feelers of starting operations at any time soon, all through 2018.

Now the website is updated with flight schedule, fares and ready for booking. A few seats are already sold as well. 

Sanjay Ghodawat ‘s Star Air group gets a code “OG”. I guess they wanted SA but that was taken already.

Star Air is offering a combined model of LCC + Full Service- there is a low cost “Star Regular” fare which gets you only flight & 15 Kg baggage-seat selection, food would cost extra, whereas a slightly expensive Star Comfort package includes Meals, seat selection and Priority baggage. There is a 3^rd Star Flexi option which entitles you to change travel dates by paying only fare difference.

At present, Star Air pricing is 2x the bus fare for half the time. Bengaluru-Hubli KSRTC AC bus ticket costs about 800 INR and takes 7-8 hours. Bengaluru-Hubli star air flight ticket can be had for Rs 1299+225 convenience fee= Rs 1524. Add some cost to reach Bengaluru airport and for about 2000 Rs you can fly to Hubli, saving 8 hour road journey. Spicejet, Indigo, Air India already fly between Hubli and Bengaluru and Star Air will compete with them. But Hubli-Tirupati route is unique- there’s no competition at all. Star Air earlier had New Delhi as one of their possible destinations-that is removed for now as the aircraft will keep shuttling between Bengaluru-Hubli-Tirupati-Hubli-Bengaluru-Belagavi-Bengaluru.

Star Air's Detailed Schedule below

Star Air Schedule

Some useful information about Star Air flights

• Seat selection costs Rs 300 for standard seats, 600 for emergency row and first row extra leg room seats.
• Star Air flies an Embraer E145 aircraft that has some 18 rows in 2+1 configuration- roughly 47 odd seats. Wondering won’t the 2+1 seating make the aircraft tilt towards port side
• 15 kg baggage is free for all passenger, extra 5 Kg would cost about INR 1500
• Meal selection costs Rs 250, though details of menu is not available yet
• You can have your bag out on priority for extra 50 bucks.
• A 225 Rs convenience fee will be charged per flight.
• At present bookings are only being accepted between 25^th Jan and 30^th March.
• Star Air also seem to have rolled out a Loyalty program for their passengers.

Star Air lowest return fares

#	From-To	Lowest One way fare seen	Lowest return fare seen
1	Hubli-Tirupathi	2099+225 Conv fee=INR 2324	5200+450 conv fee= 5650 INR
2	Hubli-Bengaluru	1299+225=1524 INR	2900+450 = 3350 INR
3	Bengaluru-Belagavi	2299+225=2524 INR	4600+450= 5050 INR

Star Air Customer care number is +91 9970555111

Airline is headquartered in Bengaluru

Star air is not yet listed on MakeMyTrip or such OTAs, you’ve to book direct on their official website only. Best wishes to the new airline. As of now they have only 1 Aircraft- so should there be an issue, multiple flights have to be cancelled till aircraft is ready. Hopefully they grow well and fill the void created by now defunct Air Deccan