| Indian carriers go shopping |
| Our Bureaus / Singapore/Mumbai February 22, 2006 |
| SpiceJet, Jet, Air-India, Indian buy aircraft, engines worth $3.7 bn. Low-cost carrier Spicejet today signed a $700-million deal for ten aircraft with Boeing, even as Jet Airways and state-owned Air-India and Indian Airlines placed orders worth $3 billion for aircraft engines. General Electric said it had won an order worth more than $2.2 billion from Air-India for engines for the airline's new Boeing 777 and 787 fleets. The company said in a statement that Air-India had placed an order for the GE90-115B engine for eight 777-200LRs and 15 777-300ERs. In addition, the airline has ordered for the GEnx engine to power 27 787-8 aircraft. Indian, as Indian Airlines is called now, signed a deal worth $500 million with CFM International to purchase engines for its newly acquired fleet of Airbus aircraft. The CFM56-5b engine will power Indian's new fleet of 43 Airbus A320 family of aircraft scheduled for delivery between late 2006 and 2010, according to a CFM release. CFM is a 50:50 joint venture between French aeroengine major Snecma and US engine maker General Electric. Last year, Indian had placed a $2.5-billion order with Airbus for 43 planes. The airline recently took delivery of leased CFM56-5b-powered A319s, making it the first A319 operator in India. Jet Airways has selected GE's CF6-80E1 engines to power its 10 Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The order is worth $300 million. The airline is scheduled to start receiving the new aircraft in 2007. Spicejet |
