Air Sahara in parleys with Bombardier to buy 25 planes

Sahara Airlines, which attempted the country's biggest aviation merger last year, said it's in talks with Canada's Bombardier Inc, the world's third-largest maker of commercial aircraft, to buy planes as travel demand rises.

Air Sahara, as the airline is called, may purchase up to 25 aircraft, which can seat as many as 75 passengers, said Alok Sharma, president, Sahara.

Closely-held Sahara has more than 20 planes in its current fleet.Indian carriers are buying turboprop planes and small jets to fly to small cities, where rising incomes are helping boost demand for air travel.

The New Delhi-based Sahara ordered 10 737 planes from Boeing Co last year for as much as $700 million after a deal to merge with Jet Airways (India), the country's biggest domestic carrier, fell through.

"We need smaller planes that will connect regional centres to large metropolitan cities,'' Sharma said. "Regional centres have a great potential for aviation growth in India.'' Sahara is seeking to buy new planes to operate more flights and win back market share in India amid competition from both so-called legacy carriers and low-fare airlines. The airline said on August 17 that it plans 66 new flights as of last year, including destinations in China, Bangladesh and Male.

Sahara may also buy regional jets from Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA, the world's fourth-biggest aircraft maker to buy regional jets, Sharma said, without elaborating.

India's local airlines carried about 29 million passengers until the end of November last year, a 47 per cent rise over the previous year, according to the civil aviation ministry. Passenger traffic will grow 30 per cent a year until 2010, according to government forecasts.