Air India to Sell Airbus Planes

New Delhi: Air India, the country's flag carrier, said it will sell 11 of its Airbus A320 planes and return an equal number to lessors as new planes from Boeing Co. and Airbus are delivered.
Air India will add 15 more new Airbus planes to its fleet in the current financial year that began April 1, Jitendra Bhargava, executive director for corporate communications at National Aviation Company of India Ltd. or Nacil, told Dow Jones Newswires late Wednesday.
Air India is the operating brand name for Nacil, which was formed after the merger of state-run Indian Airlines and Air India in August 2007. Air India Charters runs budget carrier Air India Express.
"We will have to phase out our old planes and replace them with new ones," Mr. Bhargava said. "The tendering process for the aircraft to be sold will be done on an as-is-where-is-basis," he said, adding the 11 planes were inducted into the airline's fleet during 1989-90.
Mr. Bhargava didn't give any timeframe for issuing the tenders for selling the planes, but a senior official at the country's civil aviation ministry said the tenders are expected to be issued soon.
Air India will return seven leased planes by December and another four in 2010, Mr. Bhargava said. "We are also adding 19 A321s and A319s to our fleet this financial year, out of which four have already been added."
The merged Air India inherited an order placed in 2005 for 111 planes - 68 Boeing and 43 Airbus - valued nearly $15 billion at list prices. The carrier currently has a total fleet of 150 planes.
The aviation ministry official, who asked not to be identified, said the decision to sell the 11 planes was taken by Air India's board in late May.
04/6/09 Anirban Chowdhury/The Wall street Journal

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Categories: NACIL Jun 2009