Aviation veteran Harish Kutty to lead start-up Air Kerala as Chief Executive Officer

Harish Kutty, an aviation veteran with an experience of over 35 years joins the new-airline Air Kerala as the first chief executive officer.  Prior to joining Air Kerala, Kutty was the director of revenue and network planning at SalamAir, a regional airline in Oman. 

Harish Kutty started his career at British Airways in 1993 and was at the helm of management roles with leading airlines in India and the GCC. He has worked for airline brands like Air Arabia and Wataniya Airways. He was the chief commercial officer at SpiceJet and Georgian airline flyvista. 
He also served the roles of vice-president of commercials at RAK Airways and commercial director at Wataniya Airways

Dubai based Zetfly Aviation is the parent company of Air Kerala. The company received the initial NOC, No-objection Certificate in July 2024 from India’s civil aviation minister and hopes to get the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) by mid-2025. 

The airline will operate out of its hub in Kochi with plans to start commercial flights in Tier II and Tier III cities in the country by Q2 of 2025 before venturing into international operations in the GCC area.

Thrilled to be a part the new venture Kutty says that AirKerala.com is not merely an airline; it is the realization of a long-cherished dream shared by millions of Malayalees worldwide. “This airline represents the hopes, culture, and spirit of our people, and I accept with deep dedication the responsibility to bring this dream to life,” Kutty adds. 

Kutty further says that the airline is gearing up to receive the AOC, and right now is in the pre-application stage. Kuttly further goes on to ascertain that the process of obtaining an AOC is time-consuming and that the airline hopes to receive it by April 2025. 

The management at Air Kerala is currently in talks with ATR to dry lease atleast three 78-seater ATR 72-60s aircraft by mid-2025, during launch. 
AirKerala is developed to assist expatriate Malayalees travel to their home countries at affordable fares, hopes to launch its international operations by 2028, the company said in a release. 

According to the MoCA guidelines an airline has to have at least 20 aircraft in its fleet before commencing international flights. Air Kerala plans to achieve this target by 2028 with the choice of fleet ranging from narrowbody Boeing 737s or A320s.