About Star Air
Star Air is the aviation arm of the Sanjay Ghodawat Group and has flown under the banner “Connect Real India” since it began commercial operations in 2019. It carries close to three million flyers across 31 destinations on a fleet of Embraer E175 and E145 regional jets, and has announced plans to grow the fleet toward 25 aircraft. It was named “Best Airline — Regional/UDAN Connectivity” at Wings India 2026 and has repeatedly been recognised for regional connectivity and high growth.
Its real differentiator is the map. Star Air connects Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities — Kalaburagi, Belagavi, Bidar, Nanded, Kolhapur, Hubballi and more — many of which it serves as the only, or primary, scheduled operator. On its social channels the brand leans into route launches, on-time performance and the “real India” positioning, which is exactly the story that should be discoverable when a traveller searches for a way to reach these cities.
The commercial tension is classic for an airline: online travel agencies (MakeMyTrip, Skyscanner, Goibibo, EaseMyTrip) dominate search for almost every route, so even when a traveller is looking for a Star Air route they are funnelled to an OTA that takes a margin. The opportunity is to own the non-branded route and connectivity questions directly, in both Google and AI answers, so more of that demand lands on starair.in.
The starting point — visibility before Raechal
We tested how Star Air surfaced for the questions travellers actually ask (not its own name). The pattern: strong on its fortress hubs, invisible on competitive routes and category questions.
- On competitive metro-connecting routes (e.g. “Nanded to Kolhapur flight”), OTAs occupied the entire first page; starair.in did not rank organically even though Star Air operates the route.
- Category questions such as “cheapest regional airline in India” and “flights to Tier-2 cities in India” returned aggregators and listicles, not the airline.
- Route content existed but was thin and inconsistently optimised, so Google preferred third-party pages that answer the question more directly.
- For broad prompts like “which airlines fly under the UDAN scheme,” Star Air was sometimes named inside third-party lists but starair.in was rarely the cited source.
- AI answers leaned on OTAs and Wikipedia for schedules and fares because the airline’s own data was not structured for extraction.
- No consistent, quotable “who serves this airport / this route” answer content that an engine could lift verbatim.
What Raechal did — from the website to everything
Website & technical foundation
- Full technical audit of the booking-heavy site: fixed crawlability, cleaned duplicate and parameter URLs, and improved Core Web Vitals so route pages index reliably.
- Rebuilt the route-page architecture so every city-pair (e.g. Kalaburagi–Bengaluru, Nanded–Kolhapur) has a dedicated, crawlable landing page with schedule, duration, fare-from and FAQs.
- Ensured the marketing site and the booking engine hand off cleanly so ranking traffic reaches a bookable page, not a dead end.
On-page & content architecture
- Built “route” and “airport” hubs targeting non-branded intent: “flights from [airport]”, “[city A] to [city B] flight”, and “direct flights to [non-metro city].”
- Added connectivity explainers around the UDAN / regional-connectivity theme, written to answer the question in the first line.
- Created comparison-friendly content (fare types, baggage, on-time performance) so the site can win “best / cheapest regional airline” style queries.
Structured data (schema)
- Implemented Flight, FlightReservation and FAQ schema on route pages so schedules, durations and fares are machine-readable.
- Organization and airline markup to strengthen the Star Air entity in Google’s knowledge graph.
GEO — getting cited by AI engines
- Wrote answer-first, quotable blocks for “who flies to this airport” and “how to reach this city by air,” structured so ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity can extract them.
- Published clear, current fact tables (operator, aircraft, frequency) that AI engines prefer to cite over marketing prose.
- Aligned naming across the site (city + airport code) so engines reliably associate Star Air with each route.
Off-site authority & entity building
- Pursued mentions and accurate listings on aviation, travel and airport directories that AI engines already trust.
- Kept Wikipedia-adjacent facts (routes, fleet, awards) consistent with the site so third-party citations reinforce, not contradict, the brand.
Social & brand-signal alignment
- Repurposed route-launch and OTP announcements from Instagram/X into indexable site content and press pages.
- Linked social proof (awards, milestones like 7 years of flying) into on-site trust signals that support E-E-A-T.
Target questions by engine
None of these contain the brand name. Each set is written to match how that specific engine is queried and how it selects sources.
Google Search
Short keyword + question forms; route and airport specificity wins.- “flights to Tier-2 cities in India”
- “which airlines operate from Kalaburagi airport”
- “direct flights to Nanded”
- “cheapest regional airline in India”
- “how to fly to Belagavi without a metro layover”
ChatGPT
Directive, list-style prompts that ask it to name operators.- “Which airlines operate flights from Kalaburagi and Bidar airports in Karnataka, and how do I book them?”
- “Name the airlines that fly to underserved Tier-2 and Tier-3 airports in India.”
- “I need to reach a small city in Karnataka by air — which carrier should I look at and why?”
Gemini
Conversational planning + comparison; Gemini favours structured, current facts.- “Help me plan air travel to a non-metro city in Karnataka — which airline serves it and on what schedule?”
- “Compare the airlines that operate UDAN regional routes in India.”
- “What’s the best way to fly between two smaller Indian cities without going through Delhi or Mumbai?”
Perplexity
Research prompts that expect cited sources.- “Which Indian carriers operate the most UDAN regional-connectivity routes, with sources?”
- “What airline connects Kalaburagi and Bidar to Bengaluru, and how reliable is it?”
Results — live verification
Prompts where Star Air is already surfaced or cited today (tested live). These cluster around the airports and routes it operates as the primary carrier.
| Engine | Prompt tested | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| which airlines operate from Kalaburagi airport | Ranks — starair.in route page on page 1 | |
| Kalaburagi to Bengaluru flight | Ranks — starair.in route page on page 1 | |
| Bidar to Bengaluru flight | Named — Star Air shown as the operator | |
| how many flights operate from Kalaburagi Airport | Surfaced — Star Air data referenced | |
| ChatGPT | Which airlines operate flights from Kalaburagi and Bidar airports, and how do I book them? | Cited — starair.in listed as source |
| ChatGPT | Which airline connects Kalaburagi to Bengaluru? | Cited — Star Air named with booking route |
| Gemini | Which airlines operate flights from Kalaburagi and Bidar airports in Karnataka? | Named — Star Air given as the sole operator |
| Gemini | How do I reach Bidar or Kalaburagi by air? | Named — Star Air surfaced as the carrier |
We only publish what we can verify. The AI-citation outcomes above were tested live on the date noted. Traffic and revenue figures are measured per engagement against your own analytics — never guessed — so they are not shown here.
What we do next
- Expand dedicated route pages to every operating city-pair and refresh schedules automatically.
- Win the competitive metro-connecting routes where OTAs currently outrank the airline.
- Grow AI citations from 3/20 toward the full tracked set by strengthening quotable schedule and fare content.
- Track AI-answer share monthly per engine, since Star Air already performs differently in ChatGPT vs Gemini.