Shravan Kumar Vishwakarma the founder and chairman of the startup airline Shankh Air has been quietly emerging as one of the most interesting personalities in the country’s rapidly growing aviation sector. The former tempo driver from Kanpur has grabbed industry watchers and business circles’ attention with his sensational rise from a lower-middle-class family with little education to the helm of a startup airline that is all set to fly its first aircraft as early as January–February 2026. Born in a middle-class family in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Vishwakarma left school early without any particular interest in academics finding jobs and work to support himself including driving tempos in his hometown in his early years. In the coming years the man developed an interest in entrepreneurial ventures dabbling in various businesses including trading building materials and later on steel transport and mining to name a few. The most successful business in his stable is Shankh Agencies Private Limited started in 2022 dealing in building materials ceramic concrete products and wholesale trading. The success of the company provided the financial muscle required to enter the hyper-competitive aviation sector. In 2023 Vishwakarma launched Shankh Aviation Private Limited the parent company of Shankh Air which will begin operations hopefully from January–February 2026. In November this year Shankh Air received a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to get its operations underway with the company CEO recently confirming the application for the same. The new airline will take on some of the country’s oldest airlines as well as start-ups to woo middle-class passengers and first-time flyers on full-service domestic flights at affordable ticket prices. Shankh Air is planning to operate from its base at Lucknow and Noida’s proposed Jewar Airport in the initial days flying to major metros such as Delhi and Mumbai as well as Tier-II cities. The airline is expected to operate Airbus aircraft in its initial phase and expand to a fleet size of 20-25 aircraft in the coming years. The young airline owner has said in interviews that there is a need to break the perception among the general public that air travel is only for the elites and his airline is committed to making it accessible to the middle classes. The company has already vowed not to increase ticket prices during festive seasons to bring down the prices for those flying for the first time. Observers also point out that a new class of government-approved airlines will slowly start to encroach on market share from legacy carriers such as IndiGo and Air India and that it would be interesting to see how this transformation of the market would play out in the coming years.