The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan inks deal for purchase of 30 more A320s

The delivery for the existing order of Airbus A320s begins from 2007 and the next 30 from 2008. Of these, two A320s have already been sold and leased back to the airline.

Industry sources said that with the signing for the additional aircraft, Air Deccan has been able to renegotiate a better price for even the existing order of 32 aircraft.

The airline will also have the option of selling some of the additional aircraft at a profit in case it does not want to utilise them immediately.

Air Deccan, which is on a major expansion drive, has currently the largest network in the country flying to 46 airports. Jet Airways flies to 44 airports while Indian Airlines flies to 42.

Because of the huge network, the new acquisition will help the airline increase the number of flights and also connect newer destinations.

For instance, the airline plans to fly between Chandigarh and Jammu and Hyderabad and Nagpur, which are unconnected currently, even though each of these cities has its own airport.

The airline is also planning to increase the number of flights to metros such as New Delhi and Mumbai because of the higher traffic to those cities.

Airbus Industrie had earlier said that India will require about 400 aircraft by 2019, nearly double the projections it had made last year.

As the entire fleet of Air Deccan consists of only A320s, it will also help the airline the drive down the cost of components because of the commonality factor.

Air Deccan's current fleet consists of 17 ATRs and seven leased A320s.

Earlier this year, Capital One and ICICI VF picked up 13 per cent each in Air Deccan's parent, Deccan Aviation, for a total of $40 million.