The airline appealed to middle class travellers with low fares and a large route network.

[7] In order to increase capacity on its trunk routes, Air Deccan purchased two Airbus A320-200s and leased five in 2004.

As it grew, other low-cost carriers emerged in the Indian market; SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo and JetLite were all launched between 2005 and 2007.

[21] Air Deccan also avoided the cost of printing tickets; passengers or travel agents were required to do so off the Internet.

[20] In early May 2007, rumours began to circulate that Vijay Mallya, founder of Kingfisher Airlines, was interested in buying Air Deccan.

[23] Gopinath believed it was impossible to merge the airlines' separate business models; Kingfisher was a full-service carrier.

[24] Nevertheless, negotiations began at the end of the month, and Kingfisher parent United Breweries Group purchased a controlling 26% stake in Deccan Aviation on 31 May.

[24][26] In addition, he needed to raise funds;[27] Air Deccan had lost ₹213 crore (US$25 million) during the quarter ending 31 March 2007.

[28] In December 2007, the airlines announced that they would merge into a single corporate entity while maintaining separate brands.

[b][33] Mallya introduced major changes to the Simplifly Deccan brand in order to reduce losses and improve the airline's reputation, which had declined because of poor on-time performance.

Simplifly Deccan ended the practice of outsourcing check-in staff, lengthened turnaround times and stopped selling tickets at promotional fares.

[45] Simplifly Deccan was operating the following aircraft in September 2007:[46][47] In 2003, on the planned launch flight from Begumpet airport, Hyderabad to Vijayawada, having onboard guests including Pratap Reddy, M Venkaiah Naidu, Pankaj Abani and other political leaders, one of the engines caught fire while taxiing for takeoff and the flight was aborted.

[48] On 11 March 2006, Air Deccan Flight 108 made a hard landing and skidded off runway 27 at HAL Airport in Bengaluru.

[49] Soorarai Pottru, a Tamil-language film starring Suriya, directed by Sudha Kongara was inspired by the initial events of Air Deccan and its founder Cpt.

[52] The film was also remade in Hindi as Sarfira by the same director, starring Akshay Kumar and Radhika Madan in the lead role.