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Rediff.com  » Business » Private airlines go aircraft shopping

Private airlines go aircraft shopping

By Rumi Dutta in Mumbai
January 05, 2005 11:43 IST
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The government's decision to allow private domestic carriers with five years of flying experience to operate on international routes has triggered off an aircraft buying binge.

As a result of the policy decision and partly to meet their domestic expansion plan, private airliners will be collectively buying at least 130 planes over the next five years.

The Naresh Chandra-controlled Jet airways is planning to buy over 20 planes, while the Subroto Roy-promoted Air Sahara will be buying around 25 planes.

"The deals with Jet and Sahara are likely to be finalised by this month-end," a source close to an aircraft manufacturer said.

A senior executive at Air Sahara said, "We are looking at wide-bodied planes to service the US and Europe routes. These are the most lucrative sectors and grossly underserviced, particularly during peak seasons. We would not want to delay starting services in these sectors. We are also looking at expanding our domestic operations. While we have a Boeing fleet, we are in talks with both Airbus and Boeing."

Air Sahara has a fleet of 14 Boeing 737s and 7 Canadian regional jets.

The Wadia group's Go Airways is planning a 20-aircraft fleet. Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines, the budget airline majors, have already announced that they will be acquiring 30 planes each from Airbus Industries.

Royal Airways and East West Airways, both also low-cost carriers, are firming up their fleet plans and have already started discussions with aircraft manufacturers, according to informed sources.

The airlines are currently in the process of tying up funds for their acquisition. Jet plans to fund its expansion through the proceeds of its initial public offering.

Jet and Air Sahara are essentially looking at Airbus 340 that could be deployed on the India-Europe-US route and at A340-300 that could provide non-stop services to the US.

Each of these modern planes costs around Rs 500-600 crore (Rs 5-6 billion), depending upon the in-built features. Some five or six planes will be joining their fleet in the first year; the rest are to be delivered over four years, a source said.
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Rumi Dutta in Mumbai
Source: source
 

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