Air Deccan Plans 125-Strong Fleet

Air Deccan, will add nearly a hundred planes over the next seven years, building a 125-strong fleet by 2013, a company official said on Friday ahead of a planned public stock offering.
Devesh Desai, Air Deccan's head of finance, said the airline would also add up to new 60 routes in the fiscal year ending March 2007, marking a major expansion from the 85 it already flies.
The company, whose initial public offer (IPO) opens on May 18, said in its prospectus it had placed firm orders for 96 aircraft: 67 Airbus A320s and 29 ATR turboprops, made by a joint venture between Airbus maker EADS and Finmeccanica.
About 30 percent of the airline's current routes were profitable, Desai said, adding that it usually takes a year for each to break even.
The airline operates 29 planes and added 30 to 40 new routes between April and November 2005, Desai said. But it lost INR1.17 billion rupees (USD$26 million) in that period.Desai said the airline would use INR1.3 billion (USD$28.9 million) from the IPO -- in which it hopes to raise about INR4.3 billion (USD$94.8 million) -- to "pre-pay high-cost" loans spread over the next one to four years.
12/05/06 Airwise

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