Air-India will appoint an advisor for laying out the roadmap for its initial public offer by this month-end and plans to hit the capital market by December 2005.

The state-owned carrier has already sought Expression of Interest for appointment of advisors and some of the entities have spoken to us, A-I chairman V Thulasidas told reporters in Mumbai on Friday.

The last date for filing EoI is June 17.

Asked about the timing for IPO, he said the airline hopes to tap the market before the end of this calender year.

On the issue of finalising balance sheet according to global standards, Thulasidas said A-I would follow the trend adopted by Indian companies.

Later, referring to the any changes in airfares due to drop in domestic aviation turbine fuel prices, he said there was no fare revision on the cards.

A-I procures only one third of ATF requirements from the local markets and two third was bought from international markets, he said.

Though domestic ATF prices are down, they are still higher than international prices, he added.

A-I has permission to hedge the prices but was yet to operationalise it, he said.