Liquor baron Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines has inducted a brand new Airbus A320 into its fleet. Mallya took the delivery of the aircraft in Toulouse, France, on Monday.

He said his airline will become the largest private Indian carrier by 2010 with a fleet of 55 aircraft.

This is by far the largest expansion plan charted out by a start-up carrier in the country. Mallya had earlier said that his airline would buy 30-odd aircraft from Airbus Industrie. The fleet expansion, Mallya said, will cost Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion).

The Mallya-owned carrier also plans to have a pricing scheme, whereby tickets will be priced between those of a business class and economy class on a full service carrier now.

"We want to target the next generation Indians. It is projected that there would be about 150 million of them in the near future. This is a carrier for them," Mallya said at the aircraft induction function.

The carrier, which will have 11 aircraft on its fleet by December 2005, expects to operate about 66 flights a day then. Kingfisher Airlines, however, will not offer tickets at Rs 500 to woo passengers.

"We are offering certain services to people who are willing to pay for such services. We hope to have a substantial market share," Mallya said.

The airline will offer a single class configuration with 174 seats on all the routes. It is expected that the carrier will break even in the very first year of operations itself. -- Business Standard