Deepinder Goyal, best known for turning Zomato into a household name, is now chasing a radically different horizon—this time, in the skies. With LAT Aerospace, Goyal is stepping into the under-penetrated regional aviation space in India, a sector burdened by underutilisation and overcomplexity. The idea isn’t to create another airline; it’s to redefine what air travel means for the average Indian beyond the metros.
This move is not just bold—it’s timely. In a country with over 450 airstrips, only about 150 are used for commercial flights. That’s a staggering waste of infrastructure in a nation where millions still endure long road and rail journeys to cover distances that air travel could shrink into hours. Goyal sees this not as a limitation, but as a launchpad.
Flying Like a Bus, Boarding Like a Cab
LAT Aerospace doesn’t just want to replicate existing models—it wants to dismantle them. As Surobhi Das, LAT’s co-founder and Goyal’s longtime collaborator, put it: “Think buses in the sky.” These small aircraft would operate from compact “air-stops”—closer to neighbourhoods, away from the chaos of major airports, free from the bottleneck of security queues and check-in lines.
This vision is not utopian; it’s fundamentally rooted in systems thinking and user empathy. The same principles that scaled Zomato—convenience, ubiquity, and trust—are now being applied to an industry ripe for disruption.
From Appetite to Altitude: Goyal’s Evolution
Deepinder Goyal has long had a knack for understanding latent demand. He bet on food delivery when India’s infrastructure wasn’t ready for it. He built trust in a sector notorious for poor reliability. Now, with a reported $50 million in funding—$20 million of which comes from Goyal himself—he’s putting that intuition to work again.
Goyal is also not stepping into this alone. With a sharp co-founder in Das, who helped scale Zomato from within, LAT Aerospace blends startup agility with real-world execution experience. More importantly, the duo understands India, not just its Tier 1 audiences, but its swelling, aspirational heartland.
Their play is not about vanity jets or luxury routes. It’s about value: connecting Surat to Nagpur, Madurai to Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar to Raipur. It’s about solving the real transportation bottleneck that slows down productivity and participation in the Indian economy.
A New Ecosystem in the Making
What LAT Aerospace promises is more than a new airline—it’s the creation of an entirely new ecosystem. If successful, LAT will demand a new class of engineering talent, regulatory frameworks, and last-mile connectivity partners.
The startup is already recruiting aerospace engineers and systems designers to reimagine aircraft from the ground up. Compact airstrips, minimalistic boarding, and low operational costs are all critical to delivering the holy grail: air travel that is as routine as boarding a bus.
Public adoption will, of course, depend on price, safety, and consistency. Regulatory approval could take time, and infrastructure buildout won’t be easy. But the audacity of the idea matters—and in Goyal’s case, audacity is often a prelude to reality.
The Broader Message: Access, Not Aspiration
At its core, LAT Aerospace sends a clear message: access should not be a privilege. Goyal’s bet is that the hunger for connection to jobs, to healthcare, to opportunity runs deeper than just wanting to fly for convenience. In fact, in this view, aviation isn’t about luxury anymore. It’s about inclusion.
The real win isn’t just whether LAT Aerospace succeeds commercially. It’s whether India can finally unlock the massive regional potential lying dormant in its skies. If that happens, LAT won’t just be a new airline—it’ll be the first flight of a completely new mobility culture.
