Air Deccan plans IPO

"We have filed an application with the SEBI and the matter is in the process," John Kuruvilla, chief revenue officer of the airline said.

He declined to divulge details about the size and timing of the initial IPO, saying that the amount raised through it would be utilised for a major expansion plan of the airline, which first started operations in August 2003.

On acquisition of aircraft, he said the airline has placed orders for A320s and ATR 42s, adding that by the end of 2010, the fleet strength would rise to 90 from the 20 at present.

Currently, Air Deccan has a fleet strength of six A320s and 14 ATRs connecting 150 destinations across the country.

He said that Air Deccan would hire 50 per cent of the aircraft on wet lease, while the remaining would be purchased outright. Government formalities on acquisition of aircraft had been completed, he added.

Meanwhile, keeping in line with the airfare hikes by the Indian Airline and Jet Airways, Air Deccan has also decided to hike its fare in a couple of days, but only at the upper slab of its fare structure, Kuruvilla said.

"Under no circumstances fares in lower slabs will be allowed to increase," Kuruvilla said.

Air Deccan, which operates 12 flights a day from Kolkata would soon increase the number in the region, he said, adding that at least ten more flights to different north-eastern destinations, besides Patna and Ranchi, would take off soon.

The airline, which connects Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Aizawl in the Northeast at present, would soon destinations like Agartala, Silchar, Shillong and Imphal in the next phase.

To a query on the airline's inability to maintain the departure time schedule, Kuruvilla said most of the delays were caused by technical snags, adding that since the carrier did not have any standby aircraft, some of the flights were not able to depart on time.

To improve punctuality, he said that the Air Deccan would soon acquire a standby aircraft which would be stationed either in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Kuruvilla claimed that the low cost Air Deccan had 11 per cent share of the sale in air tickets against 14 per cent share in capacity.

HPCL chief regional manager (retail) K S Rekhi said that at present Air Deccan tickets would be available in 20 HP retail outlets which would be extended to 40 retail outlets by next month.

Describing the tie-up with Air Deccan as part of their customer service, Rekhi said that their Club HP retail brand and distribution of Air Deccan tickets would further add to the value to their customers, besides helping to enhance revenue earning to some extent.