Air Deccan plans Delhi sector touchdowns

Air Deccan, the country's first no-frills low-cost airline, will connect Delhi with two new daily flights from December 22.

The route expansion is being been undertaken as five turbo-propelled ATR 42-500's will be joining the airline's fleet shortly. Two of these ATRs, which will be based in Delhi, will connect seven states to the city.

As per the initial plans of the airline, it will start services to Kanpur, Jabalpur, Dehradun, Agra and Jaipur. It also plans to start direct and indirect services to these cities. Sources said that the airline is expected to offer fares much lower than the existing fares in these sectors.

"The pricing in these sectors will be similar to what we have done in other sectors.

Besides, the dynamic pricing model will also be adopted here," said a company source.

Meanwhile, aircraft maker ATR today said that Air Deccan has taken the delivery of two second-hand ATR 42-500 aircrafts. These aircraft, delivered in a 48-seat configuration, are the first two of five ATR 42-500 announced at Farnborough Airshow 2004. These will be the first aircraft of the -500 generation operated by the airline. The 3 additional aircraft will be delivered between the end 2004 and February 2005.

The Bangalore-based airline started its operations in 2003 with a fleet of 4 ATR 42-320, before ordering three other ones.

With this new delivery, the Indian carrier will operate a fleet of 9 ATR 42s on its network. The total fleet will grow to 12 ATR 42s with the remaining three deliveries in early 2005.

Besides, as a part of the expansion plan, Air Deccan is targeting a fleet size of about 60 aircraft over four years. It currently has 15 aircraft. In the immediate future, the airline will be adding about 15 small sized aircraft to its fleet, which is expected to cost about $200 million based on the current market price.

The immediate timetable for fleet acquisition also includes Deccan taking two Airbus aircraft into its fleet in February and another two more aircraft in September.

The carrier is close to finalising its private placement and is in talks with major global funds for this purpose.

The airline is expected to offer about 15 per cent 20 per cent equity to raise funds.