Indian Airlines chairman Sunil Arora in Calcutta on Saturday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, July 31: Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines, has floated a tender for phasing out the existing Boeing 737s and replace them with Airbus 319s.

Chairman of Alliance Air and CMD of Indian Airlines Sunil Arora said at an interactive session organised by CII (eastern region) here today that Alliance Air would get 11 A319s on dry lease for better connectivity and safety of passengers.

On Indian Airlines, Arora said that the domestic carrier would get the 13th leased A320 plane which would be stationed at Calcutta airport and added that another set of six leased planes would be coming to IA by winter this year.

He said IA planned to increase the frequency of flights out of the metropolis for destinations like Delhi, Mumbai, Port Blair and Bagdogra.

Asked whether IA was feeling threatened due to the advent of no-frills airlines, he said that Alliance Air was already a low-cost carrier.

Expressing concern over the various state duties which were levied on IA, Arora said the domestic aviation industry would get a breather if these taxes were withdrawn. He said that foreign carriers were given preferential treatment as they were charged the base price only, while IA and Air-India had to pay the base price plus the state duties.

Arora said the matter had been taken up with the civil aviation department which was very supportive on this issue.

On apex fares announced by IA yesterday, he said these rates would stay.