Three A-300s To Be Phased Out This Year

Indian Airlines has decided to phase out three Airbus-300 aircraft from its fleet in the current financial year. This marks the beginning of the airline's plan of phasing out old aircraft from its fleet over the next five years. IA plans to replace three Airbus carriers, which have completed 20 years, in each financial year.

The national carrier will acquire three new Airbus 300 on lease to replace those slated for phase-out. A global tender, which was floated in March, will be finalised next month to determine the prospective supplier of aircraft, top IA executives said.There will however be no change in the present fleet-mix, sources say.

There is also a plan to invest about Rs 3,000 crore over the next two years in capacity expansion. Deliberations on the issue are at a preliminary stage. According to sources, an in-house preliminary committee will be set up soon to study and identify the avenues of financing the project. The committee will submit a report to the Indian Airlines board after three months, following which a sub-committee of the board will be set up to finalise a report outlining the steps for fleet modernisation. The whole process is expected to be complete in six months.

Joint board meet

The joint board of Indian Airlines and Air India will meet in Delhi on May 14-15 to assess the financial and operational performance of the airlines in the last financial year.

IA officials say another board meeting is likely to be held later in Calcutta, depending on the outcome of the May 14-15 meetings to enable an assessment of region-specific problems.