Airlines India, Indian Airlines

The Board of Indian Airlines has approved the lease of eleven new aircrafts. This would include five Airbus A-320 aircrafts and six 70 seater regional jets. The aircrafts shall be delivered over the next six months. The Indian Airlines is planning to promote its subsidiary Alliance Air as low cost air carrier to compete with the new low cost private players. The regional jets will be operated by the Alliance Air on a cost competitive model. The airline is also planning to outsource the maintenance work for the new regional jets to reduce its fixed wages. Such steps would be necessary to bring about a cost competitive model.

Earlier in February 2006, the airline had placed an order to Airbus Industries to buy 43 aircrafts including 19 A-319s, 4 A-320s and 20 A-321s. Out of which one aircraft has been delivered recently. Presently the airline has a fleet of 74 aircrafts.

Indian Airlines is getting aggressive in expansion. It is adding more aircrafts to its fleet to stay in competition with the private players.

Kingfisher Airlines has leased two Airbus A321 aircrafts from Pegasus Aviation Finance Company. At present Kingfisher has a fleet of 10 Airbus A-320s and 3 Airbus A-319s. Pegasus Aviation Fianace company is the world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor, it owns and manages a fleet of more than 200 aircrafts and it is a privately held company. As per the terms of lease, the ownership of the new aircrafts will be taken by Pegasus and Kingfisher will concurrently lease these airbus A-321s from Pegasus, the lessor.

Kingfisher started its operations in May 2005 and presently it is the fourth largest airline operating in India with a market share of about 9 percent. With the addition of Airbus A-321 Aircrafts to its fleet the airline expects to launch more flights and add more destinations to its network. The company was also very delighted on striking a deal with world’s largest commercial aircraft lessor.

Kingfisher will be the first in India to use Airbus A-321 carriers. It has state of the art technologies and is powered by IAE V-2500 engines and a seating capacity of about 150.

Budget carrier Air Deccan on Friday said it had signed a $150 million contract with Germany’s Lufthansa Technik to repair, maintain and overhaul its fleet of 14 Airbus A-320 aircraft.

Air Deccan, run by Deccan Aviation Ltd., in a statement said the agreement “also encompasses setting up of a home base of spares to support” it in Bangalore.

Lufthansa Technik is the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul division of German air carrier Deutsche Lufthansa.

Deccan Aviation shares ended 1.1 percent higher at 102.80 rupees in a firm Mumbai market.

An order for six Dreamliners from Monarch Airlines highlighted an August during which Boeing sold 30 aircraft, a steep drop from the 90 ordered in August 2005 but higher than the 22 orders posted by competitor Airbus during the month.

In addition to the Monarch order, Boeing sold eight 737NGs to Shanghai Airlines and 10 to SpiceJet, including five dash 900ERs. Unidentified customers placed orders for two 737-800s and two 787-8s and Boeing Business Jet took one 787-8 and one 737-900BBJ.

In the first eight months of 2006, Boeing sold 561 aircraft, the largest single order coming from Southwest Airlines, which booked 79 737-700s in April (ATWOnline, April 21). It sold 619 aircraft from January through August 2005.

Airbus’s 22 August orders comprised seven A321s from US Airways, five A319s and five A330-200s from CIT Leasing, three A330-200s from ILFC, one A330-200 from Air Mauritius and one A320 from an unidentified customer. Through August, the manufacturer sold 222 aircraft.

Authorities in Dubai diverted an Air India plane to a military air base after receiving information concerning the security of the aircraft, the official Emirates News Agency WAM reported Wednesday.

Quoting an official at the Dubai General Civil Aviation Authority, the agency said “concerned authorities at Dubai International Airport ordered an Air India passenger plane to change course and land instead at al–Minhad air base in Dubai” late Tuesday.

“The Authority received information on the safety and security status of the Dubai–inbound plane and precautionary checks were made to ensure the safety of the plane and passengers,” the official added.

The agency said the control tower at the Dubai airport received “notification” from a control tower in India about the aircraft. After the two towers communicated, authorities discovered that the “information was wrong.”

It was not clear what specifically prompted authorities to divert the plane, what the wrong information was and whether the plane had posed a terror threat.

After searching the plane and the passengers, authorities transported all the passengers to Dubai International Airport, to process their entry procedures into the city, the Gulf’s tourism and business hub.

The incident came two days Al–Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al–Zawahri warned in a videotape that the terror group would strike the Persian Gulf and Israel. Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE.