Air Sahara plans massive fleet expansion

Subrata 'Sahara' Roy is chalking out a blueprint to transform Air Sahara into India's largest domestic airline.

As part of the plan, the Sahara Group chairman plans to expand its fleet from 16 to 45, comprising a mix of long-haul aircraft, new generation Boeing jets and regional jets.

The operational focus will shift to a great extent towards servicing small cities and rural centres, which are currently not the priority for Jet Airways and Indian Airlines, the two other national domestic airlines.

Last week, Air Sahara had announced a 30 per cent capacity expansion taking the number of flights to 103 per day offering 11,300 seats, with effect from September 7. Roy's mega-plan will be taken up after the completion of this round of expansion.

Prior to the expansion, Air Sahara enjoyed a market share of around 20 per cent with a fleet size of 16 aircraft including nine B737 aircraft.

"Air Sahara would now be focusing on smaller cities where we would be operating 50-70 seater jets," Roy said.

The idea will be to implement the strategy of some regional airlines but on a national scale.

Roy however declined to share the financials involved in the expansion plan.

The airline aims to expand its operations to 168 flights across 32 destinations offering a capacity of 16,000 seats per day. The first phase of expansion includes induction of 10 small planes (50-70 seater jet aircraft) to its fleet.

Around 6 Boeings will be added to the new sophisticated fleet of 10 existing Advanced Aviation Technology Boeing 737-800s, 737-700s, and 737-400s.