Indian plans major capacity expansion

India's government-owned domestic air carrier Indian Monday reiterated its resolve to go for a major expansion by acquiring additional aircraft in the near future to meet the requirements of a buoyant market.

"The enhanced capacity is planned to be met through leasing of five Airbus A320 aircraft and six smaller jets at the earliest," an Indian spokesperson said after the company's board meeting. "Indian hopes to induct these 11 aircraft by the spring of 2007. In addition to this, an expansion of its international network will happen when the two already leased wide-body A330 aircraft arrive in June and October next year," he added.

With the planned leasing and the arrival of its own Airbus aircraft, Indian's total strength of the A320 family would go up to 64 by the end of 2007. "The plan to have a mixed fleet of varying capacities is primarily to provide more non-stop flights, more frequency, greater convenience to passengers and more daily operations," said a senior official of Indian, earlier known as Indian Airlines. "This would be possible with smaller aircraft, leaving the larger capacity aircraft to be utilised for high-density routes," he added.

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