Air India aims for 200-strong fleet

MUMBAI: Air India is aiming for a fleet strength of 200 aircraft in order to match its peers such as Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Emirates.

The merged Air India-Indian entity is presently in the process of acquiring 111 Boeing and Airbus aircraft which will take its fleet strength to 140 after phasing out some of its old aircraft by 2011.

Even as this project is underway, the airline is now mulling an acquisition of 60 more aircraft from Boeing and Airbus which will make its fleet 200-aircraft strong.

This is to support its ambitious plan to create a European hub, start more non-stop flights to the US and Canada besides new destinations like Australia, Switzerland, Sao Paulo and more destinations in the SAARC region.

Air India's Board is expected to take a decision on acquiring more aircraft by September which would then be put up before the government for approval, Air India Chairman V Thulasidas said.

The airline recently started a non-stop daily flight from Mumbai to New York with the acquisition of two Boeing 777-200 LRs and has already scheduled similar flights from New Delhi to New York and later on from Bangalore to San Francisco with the delivery of six more Boeing 777-200 LRs.

Thulasidas said Air India would require more such long-haul aircraft if it were to start additional non-stop flights to the US, for which there was a potential.

The destinations that are on Air India's radar are Chicago, Washington and Houston in the US and Vancouver and Toronto in Canada.

The Indian cities that could generate adequate traffic for such non-stop flights to North America are Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Amritsar, apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, Thulasidas said.

He, however, made it clear that the new destinations would be considered only after Air India gets more aircraft and ensures adequate traffic could be generated for its first and business class segments.

Air India would be launching more flights to destinations in the US with a halt in Europe once it starts getting delivery of Dreamliner Boeing 787 from September 2008.

It has ordered 23 Boeing 787s as part of the 68 aircraft it would be acquiring for nearly USD 10 billion.

The merged Air India-Indian Airlines has ordered 111 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft whose delivery would be completed by 2011. It is acquiring 43 Airbus 320, 319 and 321, mostly for domestic operations.