Gopinath: High aspirations

Hyderabad, Sept. 3: Air Deccan plans to acquire 90 more aircraft for $74 million over the next six years, managing director G.R. Gopinath said.

“We plan to acquire 62 Airbuses and 30 ATRs under a sale-lease deal,” Gopinath said on the sidelines of the Indian Travel Congress in Hyderabad. Air Deccan currently has 36 aircraft and will have 57 by 2007, he said. The airline will soon have its own hangar in Chennai, built at a cost of $12 million.

“The goal is to make 18 million train and 12 million bus passengers per day avail of aeroplanes,” he said.

The airline is also planning to promote low-cost airports. Gopinath feels state governments should create or promote infrastructure for low-cost airports.

Air Deccan plans to introduce five more routes — Kandla-Mumbai, Kulu-Delhi, Jamshedpur-Calcutta, Cooch Behar-Calcutta and Bangalore-Visakhapatnam-Tirupati — from October.

Air Deccan is also in talks with the Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand governments to underwrite 50 per cent of seats for operations to their states.

He said the airline will initiate talks with the Andhra Pradesh government also to promote better airport facilities in towns like Warangal and Kadapa for cheap air connectivity.

Gopinath has also advocated the need for a Nasscom-like body to represent the industry, flight catering, engineering services and consumers’ needs.

Mallya stand

Vijay Mallya, chairman of the UB group and Kingfisher Airlines, today lashed out at the concept of low-cost airlines at the congress.

Even while agreeing that low-cost airlines had boosted air travel by 50 per cent in the past two years, Mallya said, “The bottom line is that they will run out of cash in the next couple of years.”