Airlines to revise order books and sub-lease aircraft

Mumbai: Faced with the prospect of $1.5 billion losses owing to a slowdown in passenger traffic and high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs, airline companies are cancelling or cutting deliveries of new aircraft due this year or sub-leasing them to other carriers globally.
Leading the pack is Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines, which has 28 aircraft (including 10 wide-bodied ones) due for delivery this year.
The airline plans to take delivery of its wide-bodied aircraft, earmarked for international operations this year, but will revise its entire order book of narrow-bodied aircraft with the European airplane manufacturer Airbus.
Ahead of the June 16 meeting between the Finance Minister and chief ministers, the chiefs of all major airlines met here today and pitched hard for a reduction in sales tax on ATF.
At the meeting, airline chiefs expressed the view that they would be forced to import ATF if discrepancies in sales tax were not removed. Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya said while the sales tax was 4 per cent in one state, it was as high as 30 per cent in another. Mallya was elected Chairman of the Federation of Indian Airlines at the meeting.
"We are here to take a long, hard look at our entire order book and discuss our orders with Airbus on whether we want more or few airplanes," Kingfisher's Executive Vice-President Hitesh Patel told Business Standard from Toulouse, France, where he was taking delivery of its first wide-bodied A340.
14/06/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2008