Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal is venturing beyond food delivery and into aerospace, with plans to transform India’s fragmented and often inaccessible regional air travel network. His new venture, LAT Aerospace, co-founded with Surobhi Das, seeks to make air travel more affordable, frequent, and accessible for residents of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Announcing the initiative via LinkedIn, Das-former Chief of Staff to Goyal-shared insights into the motivation behind LAT Aerospace. “While building Zomato and flying across India, Deepinder and I kept circling back to the same question: Why is regional air travel still so broken, expensive, infrequent, and mostly out of reach unless you live in a metro?” she wrote.

Despite India having over 450 airstrips, fewer than 150 currently support commercial operations. This leaves millions in smaller towns relying on road or rail travel that can take hours or even days.

LAT Aerospace aims to address this gap by offering what it calls “buses in the sky”-affordable, high-frequency air services connecting overlooked regions. “Our aircraft will take off and land in compact air-stops-no bigger than a parking lot-built closer to where people actually live. No chaos. No security lines. Just walk in and fly,” Das added.

The company is currently onboarding talent, including engineers, systems designers, and aviation specialists, to help realise this vision. Their aircraft will be 24-seaters designed for quick turnaround and short-haul efficiency, offering budget-friendly fares and seamless access.

With LAT Aerospace, Goyal and Das are building what they call the “future of mass aviation”-a system designed not just for convenience, but for regional inclusion and national connectivity.

This bold leap into aerospace comes at a time when Zomato is introducing new initiatives to counter stagnant growth, including restaurant fees and a rider visibility plan-demonstrating Goyal’s expanding ambitions in solving real-world infrastructure challenges beyond the food tech sector.