Hans Airways made this announcement:

Proving flights depart from Birmingham Airport

Hans Airways is pleased to confirm it performed its formal route proving flight for the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Wednesday, 31 August, aboard its newly re-registered Airbus A330-200, G-KJAS. Two sets of flight and cabin crew, led by COO Captain Nathan Burkitt and Neeru Prabhakar, Manager – Cabin Safety and Service, operated the flight, whilst Simon Prower, Director of Ground Operations, focused on dispatch and logistics, with ground handling managed by Swissport. With over 100 guests on board, flight time was a little over two hours, flying along the west coast towards the North Atlantic and back to Birmingham Airport.

The previous day, 30 August, CEO and founder of Hans Airways, Satnam Saini proudly welcomed 55 guests made up of family, friends and airline partners, for a familiarisation test flight replicating a full-service offering. The A330, still a white aircraft, took off from Birmingham and made landings at Glasgow Prestwick, Doncaster, and then back to Prestwick, before returning to Birmingham Airport.

“It is my honour and privilege to take the controls on our first A330 flight,” exclaimed COO and Captain Nathan Burkitt. On the first leg, to Prestwick, he was joined by Senior Captain Graham Ness (ex Oman Air, easyJet) – one of the first pilots to join the company.

Satnam Saini thanked STS Aviation Services at Birmingham Airport for working swiftly and enthusiastically over weekends to ready the aircraft for first flight – and praised all his team – who have, collectively, “contributed so much to making this day happen, a culmination of four years’ planning and shaping.“

 

The route proving flight for the CAA is the penultimate regulatory milestone in being able to start commercial revenue operations. On the award of its UK Air Operator’s Certificate, Hans Airways will apply to India’s equivalent regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for its licence to fly from India.

It has ambitions to be the UK’s now third long-haul scheduled carrier, operating a hybrid, affordable, full-service model.

Hans Airways, with its community airline mission, intends to make Amritsar in Northern India its first destination from Birmingham Airport, and expects to be able to start flying in October (subject to licence approval).

The company is currently recruiting and looking to add 20 more cabin crew from its Birmingham, UK base.

 

About Hans Airways

Hans Airways is the UK’s newest hybrid, long-haul airline venture, blending value for money fares with a quality inflight service offering. Hans Airways will offer two classes of cabins: Economy class (called “Anand”), with a 31-inch seat pitch and 274 seats, and Premium Economy (called “Anand Plus”), offering a 56″ pitch and 24 seats. It will offer high quality complementary inflight entertainment and catering as standard.

A loyalty program is planned. To be known as FlyHAPEEI (Hans Airways Passengers Environment Education Initiative), it will reward passengers with all the regular benefits of a frequent flyer programme and with a strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility, create opportunities to donate to children’s educational charities in India or conservation and water preservation projects.

Hans Airways’ senior management has identified a high demand for regular secondary city air links between the UK and India, drawing on its CEO’s considerable experience instigating a series of charter flights for Monarch Airlines and FlyJet.

It intends to have a close working relationship with travel agencies and travel management companies.

Hans Airways submitted its UK AOC application in March 2020, following extensive discussions with the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport.

Hans Airways, the UK’s newest airline, preparing to launch scheduled flights to India this year, is pleased to announce it has a secured its first aircraft – signing a Letter of Intent for an Airbus A330-200 (MSN 950) in the first week of the new year. The aircraft has been operating with a leading European airline since 2008, configured in a two-cabin layout, which Hans Airways will operate with 275 economy and 24 premium economy seats.

The A330 will be re-registered as G-KJAS, adopting the surname of one of Hans Airways’ principal early investors, who has believed in its community airline model since the project was conceived in 2019.

UK base in Birmingham
Hans Airways has applied to the UK Civil Aviation Authority for its Air Operator’s Certificate and is hopeful of obtaining the status in time to start revenue service this summer. The airline will operate to secondary cities in India from Birmingham Airport. Its application for an Operating Licence and Route Licence has already been published by the UK CAA.

Pilot and cabin crew training commenced January 3
The first set of flight crew (four pilots and cabin crew) commenced their first day of training January 3rd in Crawley, UK with Hans Airways’ flight training partner IAGO Flight Training and L3 Harris Commercial Aviation for the simulator. The new recruits were welcomed by Satnam Saini, investor Kirpal Singh Jass, and Nathan Burkitt, the airline’s Director of Flight Operations and Crew Training.

About Hans Airways
Hans Airways is the UK’s newest hybrid, long-haul airline venture, blending value for money fares with a quality inflight service offering. Hans Airways will offer two classes of cabin – Economy (with 31 inch seat pitch and 274 seats) and Economy Plus offering a 56” pitch and 24 seats). It will offer a high quality of complementary inflight entertainment and catering as standard.

Hans Airways submitted its UK AOC application in March 2020, following extensive discussions with the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport.

Hans Airways (London, UK) is a new start-up. The company has issued this statement:

Delivering on its promise to sign agreements with well-recognized third-party suppliers, Hans Airways will enter into a partnership with Resource Group as the UK start-up airline begins to hire Captains and First Officers for its A330 fleet, allowing it to continue to make progress towards gaining its Air Operator Certificate.

Hans Airways has entered into a partnership with Swiss company Resource Group, allowing the UK-based start-up airline to commence the recruitment process for the flight crews it needs to continue along the path towards gaining its UK Air Operator Certificate (AOC) later this year. Using its UK subsidiary ContractAir, Resource Group will work alongside Hans Airways in hiring the Captains, First Officers and Training Captains required to fly its planned fleet of A330-200s.

While progress is clearly being made in terms of Hans Airways’ recruitment needs, the airline, which has had its application for its operating and route licenses to serve India published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, is continuing to make advances with regards to securing its AOC. “We are getting ready for our proving flight in October as part of the process to obtain Hans Airways’ AOC,” explains Burkitt. “We have determined a planned launch date internally, and we will make an announcement once all regulatory requirements are complete.”

The new airline talks about its plans:

We plan to operate a hybrid business model, harnessing the ‘value for money’ approach adopted by low-cost carriers (LCCs) alongside the ‘quality of service’ approach expected from traditional full-service, long-haul airlines.

The origin of Hans Airways lies in experience operating between secondary city pairs in the UK and India which established that there was a high demand for regular flights serving Indian diasporas in Europe and North America. The CEO of Hans Airways was instrumental in setting up a series of charter flights to one of these destinations with Monarch Airlines and Fly Jet Airlines.

Since autumn 2019, extensive discussions have taken place with the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport and the appropriate authorities in India. An application for a UK Air Operator Certificate was submitted to the CAA in March 2020 and is expected to be approved in 3Q21.

In terms of our network, the initial focus is on secondary routes between the UK and India, but other markets feature in the long-term plan. Our aircraft will be configured with two classes, featuring Economy Plus and Economy classes, with a high-quality inflight entertainment system. A frequent flyer program is planned, known as HAPEEI, which gives passengers the normal benefits being a member of the loyalty program, but also gives our customers the opportunity to donate to children’s educational charities.