Kingfisher-Jet to pull out 15 aircraft from fleet

Hyderabad: Kingfisher and Jet Airways, the two private carriers that announced a cost-saving alliance on Monday, will send back 15 narrow-bodied aircraft to the leasing companies after their leases end later this year and in 2009.
The combine has a fleet of 189 aircraft which includes A-320s, A-330s, Boeing-737s, Boeing-747s and turbo props.
Industry experts said this would mean the withdrawal of around 75 flights a day, or around 8 per cent of the combine’s daily domestic flights.
Confirming this, a senior Kingfisher executive told Business Standard that eight of these aircraft would be from Kingfisher-Deccan and the rest from Jet-Jet Lite. The combine will not be returning wide-bodied aircraft, which ply the international routes, he added.
Kingfisher has already sold two of its five wide-bodied Airbus A340s to Nigeria’s Arik Air and has deferred deliveries of 32 narrow-bodied A320 aircraft.
In the current Kingfisher fleet, 2 ATRs (70-seater turbo prop aircraft) and three of the recently delivered wide-bodied Airbus A330s are lying unused following a route rationalisation exercise.
The Kingfisher executive also said co-branding options were being worked out, under which airport vehicles (but not aircraft) might sport both Kingfisher and Jet logos.
16/10/08 Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard

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Categories: Jet Airways Oct 2008, Kingfisher Oct 2008