Fly91 aims to boost network in Maha, to launch flights from Nanded to Goa, B'luru
Fly91 is set to enhance its Maharashtra network by introducing direct flights from Nanded to Goa and Bengaluru in July. This expansion follows the launch of the Goa-Solapur route, connecting Solapur to India's aviation map. The airline aims to improve regional air connectivity, particularly to underserved destinations, and plans to add another ATR plane to its fleet.
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Mumbai, Goa-based regional carrier Fly91 on Monday said it is aiming to strengthen its network in Maharashtra by launching direct flights from Nanded to Goa and Bengaluru next month.Earlier, the airline expanded its air services network in Maharashtra with the flagging off of its inaugural flight between Goa and Solapur by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol.The new services will operate four times a week (Mon-Fri-Sat-Sun), the airline announced."With the arrival of FLY91's inaugural flight from Goa, Solapur is now on the aviation map of India. The air transport connectivity will ease the travel of individuals who travel to Solapur for pilgrimage, business and more," said Mohol.The airline said it is committed to improving last-mile air access to traditionally underserved domestic destinations."FLY91 aims to strengthen its regional network in Maharashtra by launching direct flights from Nanded to Goa and Bengaluru, in July this year, " Fly91 Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Manoj Chako said.The airline also said it plans to induct one more ATR plane in its fleet of three aircraft.With Solapur now added to its route map, the airline connects a total of eight cities, including four in Maharashtra-- Pune, Jalgaon, Sindhudurg and Solapur.The other destinations it serves are Goa, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Agatti"FLY91's newly introduced Goa-Solapur-Goa route not only improves access between Goa and Solapur but also plays a significant role in bridging two important regions with strong cultural, spiritual and economic prowess," Chako added.The new route, he said, will support tourism, business and easier access for families and pilgrims, adding, "Our goal is to improve regional air connectivity and Solapur is a key addition to our growing network."Known for its textile heritage and industrial base, Solapur also serves as a strategic gateway to five major pilgrimage centres in the state-- Pandharpur, Tuljapur, Akkalkot, Gangapur and Bhimashankar--making this route highly relevant for spiritual, leisure and business travellers from Goa, the airline said.Fly91 operates a total of over 150 flights per week with a fleet of three trurboprop ATR 72-600 aircraft. PTI
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Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Hemamalini Maiya of MTR Restaurants sees herself as a custodian of stories
You can't imagine it ever being quiet or empty, but on a weekday afternoon, the 100-year-old MTR Restaurant near Bengaluru's Lalbagh is especially loud and lively. Outside the steps leading into the restaurant, an ecosystem of small businesses has sprung up over the years—flower sellers, newspaper vendors, a fruit seller or two—all targeting customers streaming in for their evening vada and coffee. 'They are part of the MTR family," says Hemamalini Maiya, 52, managing partner, MTR Restaurants, as she leads me inside. I have been to MTR before, of course—you can't call yourself a Bengalurean unless you have stepped in here, bleary eyed after a morning walk in Lalbagh or exhausted from an appointment at the nearby Regional Passport Office, and wolfed down some tiffin with filter coffee so strong you can wrestle it—but this time, Maiya leads me to parts unseen. We walk through the small ground floor rooms, all filled with patrons, past a section of the kitchen where huge vats of sambar are boiling away, up a narrow flight of stairs and on to the first floor, where Maiya leads me through a warren of small rooms, all being put to full use during the rush hour, to her office. 'You would never have been able to find it on your own," says Maiya, laughing, as she places an order for khara bhath (aka upma) and coffee for us. One of Maiya's earliest memories is of walking down to the restaurant with her siblings after catching a movie at the nearby Urvashi Theatre, sitting in one of these small, semi-secret rooms behind the kitchen, and having her favourite rava idli. 'When I eat rava idli even today, I go back in time. It was my favourite dish, followed by 'Fruit Mixture'," she recalls, referring to an MTR innovation—fruit salad topped with almond milk-flavoured ice cream and toppings like paan-flavoured jelly, pomegranate and grapes. Stories about Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR), the iconic Bengaluru-based restaurant chain, are the stuff of legend; intricately woven with the history of the city and—in an almost Forrest Gump way—the world. Maiya is the third-generation custodian of the company, along with siblings Vikram and Arvind, founded by her great uncle Parampalli Yagnanarayana Maiya and his brothers in the year 1924, when they migrated to Bengaluru from coastal Karnataka to fill a growing need for clean, home-like food in the city. There's the one about how MTR invented the rava idli—it was during World War II, when there was a shortage of rice because of the Japanese invasion of Burma (now Myanmar), and Yagnanarayana Maiya, one of the founders, asked the kitchen staff to try making idlis with semolina instead, mixing it with curd and baking soda for faster fermentation. It became a hit, and eventually made its way to the menus of Udupi cafes and restaurants around the world, of which you could say MTR is the OG. Then there's the Chandrahara, a flaky, layered pastry fried in ghee, that was inspired by Yagnanarayana's travels in Europe. 'My grand-uncle travelled to London and Paris in 1951, and he went around looking at restaurants, absorbing a lot of their processes, their food. He was really taken with French pastry-making techniques and decided to try out a sweetmeat inspired by that… he called it 'French Sweet'," recalls Maiya. 'Sadly, it didn't take off. Yagnappa, as he was fondly called by everyone, was disappointed. Then he had a brainwave. There was a hit Kannada film in theatres called Chandrahara, and he decided to name the sweet after that. Overnight, it was a hit," says Maiya. Most south Indian eateries stick to a limited, tried and tested menu: there are a variety of idlis and dosas, a bunch of upmas, like khara bhath and the slightly fancier vermicelli upma (shavige bhath), pongal, crispy vadas and a halwa for dessert. The ones that do lunch and dinner—and not just 'tiffin"—offer a standard thali. While MTR does all this and more, the legacy of the company has been built on innovation, be it the unusual desserts on its menu or creating packaged, ready-to-eat foods, which was the speciality of MTR Foods, a subsidiary of the company created in 1975 during the Emergency, when state control over restaurants made the business less profitable. Managed by a different part of the Maiya family, MTR Foods eventually broke away to become an independent business entity and was sold to the Orkla Group, a Norwegian business conglomerate, in 2007. Yet, even today, people confuse the two, says Maiya. 'It is part of our complicated legacy. Recently, when there were rumours that Orkla was selling MTR Foods to an Indian FMCG company, media reports carried photos of MTR restaurants," she says, wryly. 'Actually, what bothers me more is when our old-timers, people who have been coming to the restaurant twice a day every day for 40 years, walk up to me and say 'amma, why are you selling the business?' I realise that this place is like a second home to them, and they don't want any changes." Maiya started managing the business in her late 20s after studying engineering at the BMS College of Engineering in Bengaluru. She was planning to go abroad for a masters' degree when life took an unexpected turn. Her father, Harishchandra, who was in charge, was not well, and her brother, who was supposed to take charge of MTR, changed his mind almost overnight about stepping into the role. 'He got cold feet—you could say literally, because our father's shoes were too big to fill. So dad told me 'hey do the best you can' and I stepped in, just like that. There was no planning, no preparation—I just walked into MTR, and that's how my journey began," recalls Maiya. Today, all three of her siblings are involved in the business in various capacities, though she has been calling the shots for over 25 years—a tough act for a woman in a heavily male-dominated industry where most employees, from line cooks to the servers, are men. 'Initially, I think, people were too bemused to react. They thought this was a temporary situation and I'd get married and go away. I earned their trust day by day," says Maiya, who is single. Maiya has added many landmarks to the business. It was a single, stand-alone restaurant when she joined the company, which she helped expand to 17 locations, most in Karnataka and several outside India, in cities like Singapore, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and London. Most of the new restaurants are called MTR 1924 and feature modern interiors and posher seating, though the menus remain largely the same. In the immediate future, the brand has plans to expand internationally and is looking at the US, Australia and a few locations in South-East Asia. Work on expanding to at least two international locations this year is going on behind the scenes, Maiya says. When asked why they are not looking to expand within India, she says a bit evasively: 'The logistics of it are we don't want to franchise. We want to run the restaurants ourselves and we are stretched as it is. Abroad, having a huge Indian diaspora helps." Along with expansions, another decision that reaped benefits for the restaurant was joining food delivery platforms early in their trajectory—in a meeting for this column with a Swiggy co-founder, he had mentioned that MTR joining the platform as it was expanding was a big morale boost for the then-fledgling startup. Maiya says it was a conscious decision to move with the times—back then, most traditional eateries serving south Indian food were reluctant to join the delivery game. 'So, we were not convinced initially, especially because we didn't want the hassle in the main restaurant, which is already very busy. But then we realised that delivery was going to be a big factor in sales, so we said we won't touch the main restaurant but we will partner through the other branches," says Maiya. 'And I am glad we did because delivery has changed the game. We see that on the business side also. There is a good percentage (of revenue) that delivery brings in. I think it's to do with how the world has evolved. There's more ordering in, and for youngsters especially, going to a restaurant is a special occasion. For functional meals, they would rather order in," she adds, providing a sharp insight into the way different generations approach eating out—for the core, older generation of patrons at MTR, it is the sense of community that brings them in, while for younger folks, eating out is worth it only if you can talk about it on Instagram. She did stick to her guns about not going the multi-cuisine way, even when a lot of older eateries were doing so, introducing Indo-Chinese and north-Indian dishes into their menus. 'It's easy to succumb to that because the margins are higher. I mean, a bowl of north Indian curry—probably the cost price would be less than making a dosa," she says. 'You make the same base curry and add different things to it—sure, I can see the economics of it. But that would dilute our brand. No, we would never do that," she says firmly. A couple of months ago, Maiya and her siblings decided to look back at MTR's journey in a more meaningful way, even as they are in the process of figuring out the company's succession while being very clear that it will stay with the family. 'As we were nearing the 100-year mark, I realised how much we were losing along the way… how many stories were untold as employees, customers, well-wishers passed away," says Maiya. To commemorate the anniversary, she commissioned a coffee-table book called The MTR Story: A Labour of Love. Written by Pratima Chabbi, a former restaurant industry executive turned writer, the book is based on interviews with the Maiya family, restaurant staff, vendors, patrons and even those employed in the informal economy that thrives outside the restaurant. 'I feel like my job is to hold on to this story, you know, but also take it forward. That's always on my mind," says Maiya.
Time of India
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Magnets in limbo: No rare earth nod yet from China for Indian auto suppliers
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