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Air-India to buy 17 aircraft over five years

In a major fleet expansion plan, Air-India board approved acquisition of 17 long-range aircraft and set up a technical committee to finalise short-haul aircraft (of 160 plus seat) requirement between 2003-04 and 2007-08.

A committee headed by the operations director M K Hathi has been set up to evolve the ground rules for induction of long-range aircraft and recommend the aircraft type for acquisition, director (public relations) J Bhargav said.

Briefing newspersons after the board meeting, he said a technical committee has also been assigned the task of finalising A-I's short haul requirement having 160 class configuration for international operations.

The board approved the recommendations of the three member expert committee for a combination of 17 long-range (400 plus seats) and short range (250 plus seats) aircraft. However, the board favoured a three class lay-out as against the panel's suggestion of a two class lay-out, he added.

The board suggested that while short-listing the long-range aircraft of 400 plus seats, at least 50 per cent of such aircraft should be of 250 seat category, which could fly non-stop to US.

Airline observers feel that the 400-plus seater could be the Airbus A380, the double decker aircraft with 555 seats due for commercial operations in 2005, or the Boeing 747-400.

"We will be calling both Boeing and Airbus for bids and then only can we arrive at the cost of the acquisition plans," Bhargav said.

This is the largest acquisition planned by the airline, the last one being in 1993 of six Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

Both Air-India and Indian Airlines have embarked on a major expansion of their fleet at a time when some of the world's leading airlines have been grounded or facing severe financial crisis in the wake of the September 11 incidents last year.

The proposal of the domestic carrier for a mixed fleet of 43 Airbus aircraft worth over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) is pending with the civil aviation ministry.

A-I managing director J N Gogoi said that a three member sub-committee would be set up with M K Hathi as convenor to finalise the short-haul aircraft, which could be the Boeing 737-900 or the Airbus A321.

Bhargav said induction of long-range aircraft would be only after three years from now as the airline had signed a lease for a Boeing 747-400. The airline has six such aircraft on its fleet.

The board meeting was advanced by a couple of hours as the chairman K Roy Paul, who is the secretary of civil aviation, had to rush back to Delhi.

Gogoi said A-I would pull out of domestic operations except those, which would operate to onward destinations once the short-haul aircraft are acquired.

He said the aircraft acquisition was being planned in such a manner that they would replace some of the old aircraft like the A310s.

On funding of these aircraft, Bhargav said: "We always get finance on our own. Though our equity is a mere 153.8 crore (1.54 billion) we have paid more than that as dividend."

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