Banks Can Get Their Numbers To Match

Sahara Airlines has sought permission from the civil aviation ministry to induct 12 Embraer-120 aircraft from Brazil and three Boeings into its fleet by the end of this year.

It has withdrawn an application to induct 10 British Aerospace ATPs, each with 70 seats. The ministry in its last aircraft acquisition committee meeting had recommended the induction of 5 out of the 10 proposed. The intention was to start feeder operations on a large scale.

Company sources said it had now decided to go in for the 30-seater Embraer-120. The Brazilian company also manufactures 50-seater Embraer-145s and has plans to introduce 70-seaters at a later stage. This could provide greater flexibility to Sahara's plans. In the next two or three years, the company may upgrade the aircraft and go for larger ones within the same family. A new application has, therefore, been placed before the aircraft acquisition committee.

Company sources said that they were looking a fleet of 7-8 Boeings by the year-end. These include Boeing 737-400s, Boeing 737-700s and Boeing 737-800s. At present, the carrier is operating with four Boeings.

Jet airways was also given permission to import five 60-seater ATR aircraft.

An application for four Boeings is still pending, ministry sources added. The 60-seater aircraft will be inducted into the Jet fleet from October.

Sahara's induction is likely to take longer since it is yet to obtain permission from the aircraft acquisition committee for its new proposal.

These aircraft are proposed to be employed on routes like Aurangabad, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Allahabad. Company sources said that by the year 2000 the carrier is looking at a turnover of Rs 600 crore plus, a substantial portion of which is expected to come from the feeder routes operations.

With both Jet and Sahara operating on feeder sector, competition on these routes will intensify and may lead to some loss of market share for domestic carrier Indian airlines which has so far had a virtual monopoly on many of these routes.

The introduction of the new routes will also help Jet and Sahara meet its obligations in terms of deployment of aircraft on Category 2 and 3 routes.