Malaysian carrier Air Asia would lease an Airbus A320-200 aircraft to its Indian low-cost joint venture airline, AirAsia India, at a cost of USD 45 million.
In an announcement, the Malaysian airline said it had initiated the lease agreement with AirAsia India from September 5 for a period of 144 months and the amount would be paid in the form of advance monthly lease rentals by the new Indian carrier.
AirAsia India, which currently has a fleet of two of these planes, has plans to have a 10-aircraft fleet within a year of its operations and the planes would be drawn from A-320 family of aircraft ordered by the AirAsia Group.
All AirAsia India planes would be configured in an all- economy layout with 180 seats.
The airline, a 49:30:21 joint venture between AirAsia, Tata Sons Limited and Arun Bhatia's Telestra Tradeplace Private Limited, currently flies to six destinations of Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Jaipur and Chandigarh.
The Malaysian parent company, in its corporate disclosure, said Air Asia Berhad "currently leases aircraft to the other joint venture airlines within the AirAsia Group in its ordinary course of business. In line with AirAsia's growth strategies, the fleet expansion of AirAsia India would help to maximise route opportunities in the South Asia".
The growth of AirAsia India would benefit the AirAsia Group by extending leverage on AirAsia brand and distribution presence, strengthen the group's commercial and operational economies of scale and its ability to feed traffic between South East Asia and AirAsia India domestic network and vice versa, the AirAsia Berhad announcement said.
