Mallya steals the show in Paris

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel (right) with Airbus COO John Leahy (centre) and Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya in Paris on Wednesday. (AFP)

Paris, June 20 (PTI): Kingfisher Airlines today signed a deal with Airbus Industrie to buy 50 aircraft for $7.3 billion. This is the largest order by a private Indian carrier.

Under the agreement signed between Vijay Mallya and Airbus COO John Leahy at the Le Bourget airport here, Kingfisher Airlines will buy five A340-500s, 15 A350-800 XWBs (extended wide-bodied), 10 A330-200s and 20 planes from the A320 family, including A318, A319, A320 and A321. Kingfisher is the only Indian airline to have ordered the world’s largest aircraft, A380 SAS. The five A380s are expected to be delivered in 2011-12.

With these acquisitions, the airline plans to operate its long-haul routes and expand the existing ones. The deal value is at a list price, which does not take into account discounts.

“With the A340-500 and then the A350 XWB, we will be able to offer direct routes between India and the US, for example,” Mallya said. “The A330 will allow us to expand services to Europe and the A320s will help us meet our domestic demand,” he added. Leahy said the orders placed by Kingfisher covered “nearly all our product range and our partnership could not be better”.

The government is yet to allow Kingfisher to operate globally as it has not completed the mandatory five years of domestic operations.

It, however, satisfies the other conditions for international operations such as having a 20-aircraft fleet.

Indian carriers have ordered over 450 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus in the past four years. Air India, which will complete its merger with Indian in July, has also shown interest in acquiring the A380s.

The A350-800 xwbs are the latest Airbus planes and would be the “most technologically advanced, providing enhanced productivity and unparalleled levels of passenger comfort while reducing operational costs,” Airbus Industrie said, adding that this aircraft will set “new standards in fuel efficiency to address environmental concerns.”