GoAir going slow on aircraft buys

New Delhi: GoAir appears to be easing up on its fleet expansion plans. The Wadia group airline has decided to scale back fleet expansion because of many reasons: existing policies, high ATF prices leading to increased cost of operations, and slow development of aviation infrastructure. It now plans to buy 18 new aircraft by March 2009 against 20 projected earlier and 34 new aircraft by March 2011 against 50 projected earlier.
The move comes even as the airline evaluates proposals from private equity players for acquiring minority equity in the company.
Is paucity of funds one of the reasons for this scale-down, then?
Jeh Wadia, managing director, GoAir, would have us believe otherwise.
GoAir has placed an order for 20 new aircraft with Airbus, translating to a $1.2 billion payout over 18 months. Wadia said this money was being raised via multiple routes, including sale of equity and raising debt. As of now, the company has four leased aircraft besides the Airbus added on Thursday.
05/10/07 Sindhu Bhattacharya/Daily News & Analysis

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: GoAir Oct 2007