Agent Booking for India's Regional Airlines: Air India Express, Alliance Air, Star Air and FlyBig in 2026
By Aarav Sharma (Aarav Sharma covers Indian airline operations, airport infrastructure and route economics. He writes about Tier-1 and Tier-2 airport developments, IndiGo and Air India fleet strategy, and the unsung Indian aviation hubs travellers should know about.) · Published · Last updated · 9 min read
The big six get all the attention, but a lot of your Tier-2 and Northeast bookings ride on smaller carriers. Here's how agents actually book Air India Express, Alliance Air, Star Air and the regional turboprop crowd in 2026 — channels, eligibility and the quirks that trip people up.
Quick answer
Most of India's regional carriers don't run a fancy GDS-first distribution like the big metros airlines do — you reach them through a mix of channels. Air India Express has a proper agent partner portal and also sits inside most B2B aggregators. Alliance Air (still government-owned via AI Assets Holding) and Star Air sell largely through OTAs and aggregator APIs rather than a deep direct-agent login. The turboprop minnows — Fly91 and others — are mostly OTA/website inventory. And FlyBig stopped flying in December 2025, so anything quoting it today is stale. The honest play for an agent: book the regionals through a single B2B aggregator so one wallet and one PNR flow covers all of them, instead of chasing a separate login per airline.
Why the regionals are a different animal
When agents talk distribution, they usually mean IndiGo, Air India, Akasa and SpiceJet — the carriers with mature agent portals and full GDS content. The regional layer below them plays by different rules. These are smaller airlines, often flying ATRs, Dorniers and small Embraer jets into Tier-2 and Tier-3 strips, and many of their routes exist only because of UDAN (the Regional Connectivity Scheme), where the government caps a chunk of seats and viability-gap-funds the route.
What that means for you on the ground:
- Inventory is thin. A 70-seat ATR sells out fast on a festival weekend, with no overnight reaccommodation buffer like a metro trunk route.
- Distribution is patchy. Some regionals sit in every aggregator; others are basically website-plus-OTA. You can't assume a carrier is bookable everywhere.
- Schedules move. UDAN routes get added, suspended and re-tendered. A sector that flew last quarter may be gone this one.
- Servicing is manual. Refunds, name corrections and schedule-change protection often go through a help desk, not a self-service screen.
So the first rule of regional booking: confirm the route is actually operating before you quote it, and confirm where it's sellable. The honest cross-link for the booking mechanics is our guide to issuing a flight ticket as an agent, and for the channel decision, airline-direct vs a B2B aggregator.
Air India Express (IX): the one with a real agent portal
Air India Express is the easiest of the lot because it's not really a 'regional' in the turboprop sense — it's a full LCC flying 737s, now the Tata group's short-haul value brand after absorbing AirAsia India. For an agent, it behaves like a mainline carrier.
How agents book it:
- Partner portal. Air India Express runs a dedicated travel-partner site where you register, log in and book directly. Registration asks for your firm's PAN (mandatory), and GST is collected too — though for retail agents GST details are typically optional while PAN is required. Verify the exact fields and any deposit/credit terms on the official site, since they update these.
- B2B aggregators. IX content sits inside virtually every Indian B2B portal (TBO, Riya, EaseMyTrip's agent arm and the rest), so if you already work an aggregator you can sell it there without a separate IX login.
- NDC / Air India group rails. The Tata group has pushed NDC distribution for Air India and IX; large agencies and consolidators connect via that. Most retail agents won't touch NDC directly — they'll get IX through their aggregator.
One quirk: IX fare families and baggage follow the LCC model, not legacy Air India, so check the rules on connections where a passenger flies AI then IX — baggage and meal don't always carry through. The detail is on our Air India Express fare-types page, with the parent brand on the Air India fare-types page.
Alliance Air (9I): the UDAN workhorse you book second-hand
Here's the bit a lot of agents get wrong. After the Air India privatisation, Alliance Air did not go to Tata — it stayed with the government under AI Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL), the state-owned special purpose vehicle. So 9I is a separate company from the Tata-owned Air India, even though the branding looks cousin-ish. Don't assume an Air India agent agreement covers Alliance Air; it doesn't.
Alliance is the backbone of UDAN. It flies a fleet of ATR 72-600s and ATR 42-600s plus a Dornier 228 for the really short strips, reaching dozens of small destinations — Lakshadweep's Agatti, Northeast airstrips, hill stations and island sectors that nobody else serves.
How agents book it:
- OTAs and aggregators. This is the main agent route. Alliance Air inventory shows up on the big OTAs and inside most B2B aggregator APIs, and that's where the vast majority of agent bookings happen.
- Airline website. Direct booking exists on allianceair.in for retail, but there's no deep, full-featured agent portal in the way IndiGo or IX runs one. Treat the website as a fallback, not a trade channel.
- GDS content is limited. Don't count on rich Alliance Air content in Amadeus or Galileo — for these turboprop UDAN sectors, aggregator/API distribution is the realistic path. Verify current availability with your aggregator rather than assuming.
The UDAN quirk: on a designated UDAN route, a minimum number of seats carry the government-capped fare and the rest sell at market price. Those capped seats sell out first and fast. If your client wants the cheap UDAN fare, book early — by the time it's two weeks out, you're usually buying the market-rate inventory. There's no agent trick to force-open more capped seats.
Star Air (S5): the all-Embraer Tier-2 specialist
Star Air, run by the Sanjay Ghodawat group out of Bengaluru (with a second base at Hyderabad), is the quiet success story of regional India. It flies an all-Embraer fleet — ERJ 145s and the larger E175s, including a small business cabin on some jets — to roughly 30-plus domestic destinations, and a large share of its network has historically been UDAN, with the airline now adding commercial city-pairs on top.
How agents book it:
- OTAs and aggregators. Star Air is widely listed on the consumer OTAs and through B2B aggregator inventory, which is how most agents sell it. If your aggregator carries it, you're set.
- Airline website. starair.in handles direct retail bookings and servicing; there isn't a deep dedicated trade portal in the mainline sense.
- GDS: as with the other regionals, don't assume full GDS content. Confirm with your aggregator or the airline before quoting a GDS-issued ticket.
Quirks: Star Air's jets are small (the ERJ 145 is a 50-seater), so a single corporate group can swallow a flight's inventory — quote and hold quickly for group requests. Schedules on newer commercial sectors change as the airline reshuffles aircraft, so reconfirm timings close to departure. And since it's a jet operator, Star Air sometimes competes head-on with the big LCCs on a Tier-2 sector — worth a price check against IndiGo or Akasa first.
FlyBig and the turboprop minnows: read this before you quote
This is the honesty section, and it matters. FlyBig (S9) has ceased operations. The airline grounded its aircraft in October 2025 over lease defaults and its air operator's certificate lapsed in December 2025; lessors filed deregistration requests for its Twin Otters. As of 2026, FlyBig is not flying. If an old listicle or cached aggregator screen still shows FlyBig fares, treat them as dead inventory — do not collect money for an S9 ticket.
That's the cautionary tale of the regional segment: small carriers run on thin margins and leased aircraft, and they can stop overnight. As an agent, you carry the refund risk if you've issued on a carrier that folds. So:
- Don't put a client's full payment on a single fragile regional carrier without a backup plan on a stronger airline.
- Book the regionals through an aggregator with a clear refund process rather than handing cash to a carrier website, so you're not the only one chasing the money if a flight is cancelled.
- Reconfirm the operator is live on the booking date, not just when you first quoted.
The good news is the segment isn't shrinking. Fly91 (IC), the Goa-based ATR 72 operator, has been expanding fast through 2026 — adding aircraft and new Tier-2 sectors and holding UDAN route allocations. It's bookable through its website and OTA inventory, so it's the practical replacement for a lot of routes FlyBig used to touch. Others come and go under UDAN tenders; the rule stays the same — verify the carrier is operating and verify where it's sellable before you commit a passenger.
Channel comparison: where each regional actually lives
Here's the at-a-glance view. 'Aggregator API' means a B2B portal carries the inventory through its supplier feeds — for most agents that's the single most useful column, because it's how you sell without a per-airline login. Always re-verify current availability with your own aggregator, since feeds change.
| Carrier | Code | Fleet / type | Direct agent portal | Aggregator API | UDAN-heavy? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air India Express | IX | 737 LCC (jet) | Yes (partner portal) | Yes, widely | No |
| Alliance Air | 9I | ATR / Dornier (turboprop) | Limited / website | Yes | Yes — UDAN backbone |
| Star Air | S5 | Embraer 145 / 175 (jet) | Limited / website | Yes | Largely |
| Fly91 | IC | ATR 72 (turboprop) | Website | Yes (growing) | Partly |
| FlyBig | S9 | — | Ceased operations (Dec 2025) — not bookable | ||
Takeaway: the only regional with a true mainline-style agent portal is Air India Express. For everything else, the aggregator API is your real channel. That's the structural reason most agents shouldn't try to hold a separate login per regional — there mostly isn't one, and the inventory you need is already inside your B2B portal.
GST, fares and the money side for regional tickets
The tax treatment of a regional ticket is the same as any air ticket — it's your earning that's taxed, not the passenger's full fare. As of Budget 2026, an air travel agent charges 18% GST on their commission/earnings, and the trade commonly uses a deemed value of 5% of basic fare for domestic tickets (10% for international) when computing it. UDAN sectors are still domestic tickets for this purpose. Rules shift, so confirm the current position with CBIC or your CA before you set your invoicing. We go deeper in our GST and TCS on air tickets guide.
On margins: regional fares are often thin, especially the UDAN-capped seats, so your rupee value per ticket can be small. The money is in volume and bundling — pair a regional leg with a hotel, a connecting mainline ticket, or a package. For where your earnings come from, see net fares vs published fares and how much travel agents earn in India. One honesty note: never quote a UDAN-capped fare you haven't confirmed is still available — those seats vanish, and you'll eat the difference if you've promised the price.
How FlightGPT Partner helps with the regional patchwork
The whole headache above is fragmentation: one carrier has a portal, one has a website, one lives only in an aggregator, one just died. Keeping a login per airline is impossible — most of them don't even offer one. The cleaner approach is a single B2B portal that already carries the regional inventory you need.
That's the case for FlightGPT Partner, FlightGPT's B2B portal. One login aggregates fares across IndiGo, Air India, Akasa and SpiceJet — including the Air India Express content under the Air India group — alongside series fares, group fares and wholesale/net fares, with an agency wallet, GST invoicing and white-label options. So instead of bouncing between an IX partner portal, an Alliance Air website and three OTA tabs, you search, hold and ticket from one place, and one wallet covers it. It's one strong option, not the only one — if you already run TBO, Riya or another aggregator that carries the regionals you sell, that works too. The point is to consolidate, not to chase per-airline logins that mostly don't exist. You can browse live route examples on the FlightGPT routes pages or start from the FlightGPT home.
For choosing a portal in general, weigh it against the field in our best B2B flight booking portal guide and the TBO vs Riya vs EaseMyTrip comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is FlyBig still operating in 2026?
No. FlyBig (S9) grounded its aircraft in October 2025 and its air operator's certificate lapsed in December 2025, so it ceased operations. If you see FlyBig fares on a cached page or stale feed, don't sell them. For similar regional sectors, look at Fly91 (Goa-based ATR operator) and Alliance Air, which are operating and expanding — but always confirm the route is live on your booking date.
Does Air India Express have a dedicated travel agent portal?
Yes. Air India Express runs a partner/agent registration and booking portal on its official site. Registration typically requires your firm's PAN (mandatory), with GST collected too — often optional for retail agents while PAN is required. You can also sell IX through most B2B aggregators without a separate login. Confirm the exact registration fields, deposit terms and any credit limit on the official Air India Express site, since they update them.
Is Alliance Air the same company as Air India after privatisation?
No. When Air India was sold to the Tata group, Alliance Air (9I) stayed with the government under AI Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL). It's a separate company. So an Air India agreement does not automatically cover Alliance Air. Most agents book 9I through OTAs and B2B aggregators rather than a deep direct agent portal.
How do agents book Star Air?
Mostly through OTAs and B2B aggregator inventory — Star Air (S5) is widely listed, so if your aggregator carries it you can sell it there. The airline's own site, starair.in, handles direct retail and servicing, but there isn't a full mainline-style trade portal. Because its Embraer jets are small (the ERJ 145 seats around 50), quote and hold quickly for group requests, and reconfirm timings on newer commercial sectors.
Why can't I find these regional airlines in the GDS?
Many of India's regional and UDAN turboprop carriers don't maintain rich GDS content the way metro-trunk airlines do — their realistic distribution is via aggregator APIs and OTAs. Air India Express is the exception, behaving like a mainline LCC. Don't assume a GDS-issued ticket is possible for Alliance Air, Star Air or Fly91; verify with your aggregator or the airline before you quote one.
Are UDAN-capped cheap fares always available to agents?
No. On a designated UDAN route, only a minimum number of seats carry the government-capped fare; the rest sell at market price. Those capped seats sell out first and fast, so by the time you're a couple of weeks from departure you're usually buying market-rate inventory. There's no agent trick to release more capped seats — book early if your client needs the subsidised fare, and never promise a capped price you haven't confirmed is still live.