Flying high

Mumbai, April 25: Three domestic airlines today announced their plans to acquire airplanes on lease or purchase them.

Vijay Mallya of the UB Group, the parent company of Kingfisher Airlines, took possession of one Airbus plane at the Airbus Industrie headquarters in Toulose, France. Jet Airways is leasing five aircraft, including three A 340-300 aircraft from South African Airways for international operations and two Boeing B 737-700 aircraft from GE Commercial Aviation Services for domestic flights.

Meanwhile, Royal Airways Ltd, an offshoot of ModiLuft, has informed the bourses that one aircraft has arrived in the country and the second one is expected to arrive on April 27, 2005, in line with the re-launch schedule of company?s airline operations.

Jet Airways said the delivery schedule of South African Airways will start from May 1 and the second one will arrive on May 15. The third aircraft will be made available on June 1.

Jet Airways has leased five additional aircraft for its domestic and international operations, and expects to launch services to London in May, the company has informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Jet proposes to spend $400 million over the next 24-30 months on 17 Boeing B737-800 or B737-900 planes ? of which it will buy 10 and lease seven ? to add to its fleet of 42 planes.

Jet has launched services to Singapore earlier this month. It will commence operations to London on May 23. It is also expected to begin flying to Kuala Lumpur.

Britain and India agreed earlier this month to more than double flights on existing routes between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the Air-India board will meet tomorrow to consider a multi-billion dollar aircraft purchase plan.