Ia Plans 55 Per Cent Increase In Fleet Strength

Indian Airlines has planned a 55 per cent increase in its fleet in the ninth plan period. It plans to purchase 54 new aircraft over the next five years, beginning with the induction of nine new aircraft this year.

The cost of the new aircraft will be Rs 2,235 crore. This is part of the airline's projections for a plan outlay of Rs 4,334 crore in the ninth plan period in order to achieve a 12.5 per cent growth in passenger traffic.

The Indian Airlines fleet is slated to grow from 52 at present to 90 by the year 2001-02 after taking into account the phasing out of 16 old aircraft.

At present, IA has 10 A-300s, 12 B-737s and 30 A-320s. Eight planes in the first two categories will be progressively phased out while all the 30 A-320s will be retained, as they have been bought recently.

It plans to purchase 16 50-seater aircraft, 14 each with 300 and 150 seats, respectively, and 10 100-seater aircraft over the next five years. However, none of these purchases will be effected in the current year.

These are the aircraft acquisition plans of the ministry of civil aviation on the assumption that the traffic will grow at the rate of 12.5 per cent a year.

A working group set up by the ministry of civil aviation has come up with three alternative scenarios of traffic growth for planning aircraft acquisition over the next five years.

The three scenarios include a conservative market growth at 10 per cent a year, the maximum likely market growth at 12.5 per cent a year and the optimistic market growth at 14 per cent a year.

The working group expects IA to be able to generate Rs 3,806 crore in internal resources and book a net profit of Rs 1,080 crore in the ninth plan.

Indian Airlines has ended last year with a net loss of Rs 240 crore.

The plan assumes that Indian Airlines will be able to retain its market share of 55 per cent, despite expectations of increased competition from private operators.

It has also assumed a 15 per cent growth in the international business of the airline.