3 Indian airlines to need Rs 50,000 crore in 3 years to buy planes

Three major domestic carriers -- Air India, Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways -- will together require around $10-12 billion (Rs 47,000-Rs 560,000 crore) over the next two-three years to fund their aircraft acquisition plans, an aviation think tank has said.

Despite this, Indian carriers are expected to place fresh aircraft orders at the forthcoming Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom starting later this month, it said.

The three airlines "will need a further $10-12 billion over the next 2-3 years to finance scheduled aircraft deliveries," the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said in its Indian Aviation-2010 Mid-Year Outlook report.

CAPA expects that Indian carriers will soon be making headlines again for new aircraft orders, it said adding that while IndiGo was looking to acquire up to 150 aircraft, SpiceJet would go for 47.

Air India was planning to take on lease 10 Airbus A-330s as well as several A-320s and turboprop ATR planes, it said.

Some of these orders may even be announced at the Farnborough Airshow starting July 19, the report said.

Despite improved environment for the operations of Air India, Jet Airways-JetLite and Kingfisher, a complete recovery from the turbulence of the last couple of years would "still take time, largely due to the stress experienced on their balance sheets," it said.

Stating that nearly half of the $13.5-billion debt on these airlines was aircraft-related, CAPA forecast that these carriers would take a little more time to overcome the impact caused by the recent downturn in the global economies.

According to the report, the total debt of these three carriers was approximately $13.5 billion, with an annual interest burden well in excess of $1 billion.

This consists of approximately $7.5 billion in aircraft-related debt, and $6 billion of working capital and other loans, the report said.

Outstanding amounts payable to vendors such as oil companies and airports were in addition to this, it said, adding that debt financing on this scale for aircraft financing was not unusual.

The concern, however, relates to the low equity base, which makes raising additional capital a challenge, at a time when the three carriers would need a further $10-12 billion over the next 2-3 years to finance scheduled aircraft deliveries, the report said.