‘Airlines can lease planes from foreign carriers’

The move has enabled Air Sahara to proceed with the acquisition of 12 aircraft on dry lease from foreign airlines, the sources said. Air Sahara, in a major expansion programme, is targetting to raise its fleet strength to 24 and increase its number of flights from 53 to 155 by the year-end covering the entire country, its ceo Uttam Kumar Bose said.

Domestic carrier Indian Airlines is also planning to enhance its fleet strength and has decided to acquire 43 Airbus aircraft at a net project cost of Rs 10,089 crore.

The proposal is under the ‘active consideration’ of the government, the sources said, adding that these aircraft would be inducted in a phased manner and deployed on the existing domestic and international routes of the Indian Airlines. Indian Airlines, which was to have purchased six 50-seater atr 42-500 aircraft for operations in the North-East and other feeder routes, is now in the process of finalising dry-lease of these aircraft following a directive from the government which has found the purchase proposal unviable.

The Indian Airlines board has already approved a proposal for acquiring 19 A-319 aircraft, four A-320s and 20 A-321s, all installed with cfm-56 engines. Air-India, which is yet to take a final decision on acquisition of aircraft, has however set up an in-house expert committee to develop the carrier’s fleet plans for the next five years, the sources said.

The committee is also conducting studies to determine the new generic aircraft type in terms of required capacity and range and the number of planes to be inducted. PTI