A-I clears plan to acquire 50 aircraft

In a multi-billion dollar deal, the Air-India (A-I) board today cleared a proposal to acquire 50 aircraft under its fleet expansion plans till 2012-13 and to increase the net fleet size of the national carrier to 74 aircraft from the present 34.

The company board, at its meeting here, also decided to acquire 18 737-800W aircraft, which were earlier selected for small capacity short range operations, for its subsidiary Air-India Charters Ltd, said A-I sources.

Air-India Charters will run Air-India Express, a low-cost, low-fare airline which is slated to commence operations from April 2005.

A-I plans to acquire three types of aircraft "" medium capacity ultra long range aircraft (A340-500/B777-200lr), medium capacity long range "" 350 seater in three-class configurations (A340-600/B777-300er) and medium capacity long range "" 250 seater, in two class configurations (A330-200/B7e7-8), they said.

Of the total 50 aircraft, two-thirds would be on a firm basis and one-third on an option basis.

The airline will invite tenders from aircraft and engine manufacturers and later undertake a techno-economic review of the offers received, they said.

The plan provides for an increase in fleet size of A-I to 74 from the present 34.

The fleet acquisition plan up to 2012-13 provides for replacement of two B47-300 aircraft, 19 A310-300 aircraft (including 11 leased aircraft) and five leased Boeing 747-400s in Air-India's present fleet.

On the low-cost airline, the sources said, the new aircraft would replace the leased ones to be deployed by Air-India Express when it commences operations. The board also proposed to increase seat capacity by 12 per cent annually during this period (till 2012-13), they added.