Flyington may place $1bn freighter order

Flyington Freighters, a cargo airline company floated by one of the promoter of Hyderabad-based publishing group Deccan Chronicle, is all set to place another round of orders with Airbus Industrie.

Sources close to the development said the only Indian cargo airline, which intends to start international freight operations, is exploring the option of acquiring the freighter version of the largest ever built plane A380. The number of the planes and order size are not known.

Airbus is expected to make a formal announcement tomorrow in Mumbai.

However, sources said the size of the order is expected to be over $1 billion. The freighter version, A380F, will carry a payload of 150 tonne. "The company is also examining freighter version of A330 family that will allow faster pilot transition to and from other Airbus aircraft, both passenger and freighter," sources added.