A-I Ends Wet-Lease Deal With Caribjet

The original agreement was up to December 1997.

Air India had first wet-leased an Airbus A 310 from Caribjet in December, 1994. It subsequently wet leased two Lockheed L-1011 aircraft earlier this year.

Although company officials were not willing to put an exact number to the wet-leasing cost, rough calculations based on

market rates indicate that Air India was spending at least $4.5 million per month for these three aircraft.

The airline had on September 2 decided to ground one of the L-1011 aircraft following an inspection jointly conducted by it and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

While grounding the aircraft, Air India had threatened Caribjet with invoking the termination clause in the agreement unless the technical performance of the aircraft was improved.

 

The Caribbean lessor has already been sent a formal termination letter signed by the airline's company secretary Amod Sharma.

The termination of the agreement is expected to push back Air India's growth plans for the time being.

The wet-leased aircraft were used to mainly serve direct

flight operations between India and Paris, Frankfurt and Singapore.

However, Air India officials said the airline would be operating all these services with its own aircraft to the extent possible.

It is also planning to continue with its agreement with the Canadian lessor, Air Club, from whom it has wet-leased two

aircraft.

Officials pointed out that two new Boeing 747-400s would soon be joining Air India's fleet which would considerably take care of the growth plans of the airline.