GoAir to add five aircraft to its fleet

GoAir, A Wadia group airline will add five more aircraft to its present fleet of three by the end of December 2006, said Jeh Wadia, its managing director.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that the number of aircraft would increase to 33 by 2008 and the company had already placed an order for 20 aircraft at a total cost of $1 billion.

GoAir will commence services in Mumbai-Delhi, Chennai-Delhi, Mumbai-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu sectors from April 2006 taking the total number of services to 28 from the present 20.

He also said that the airline will commence more services connecting major metros and non-metros in south India based at Kochi.

The weekly service in the Kochi-Mumbai sector would be increased to five from April 1. Wadia said, "As the airline sector in India has a growth rate of 26 per cent annually there is an immense scope for more airlines in the country. India has a total of 26 million seats annually as of today. With the present growth rate, this will increase to 70 million by the end of 2010. Seven lakh people travel by trains in A/C class on an average daily. At a meagre estimate of 5 percent shift to air travel will add 40,000 additional seats every year.