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OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
23rd November 2005
Indigo Airlines, which made a splash at the Paris
Air Show this year with a hundre aircraft order is
set to begin operations next year.
Indigo Airlines' planes will be first on lease.
The first Indigo flight is expected to take to
skies in February 2006.
Indigo hopes to keep costs 40% lower than regular
airlines and similar to that of low-budget
carriers.
The aircraft ordered by low-cost carrier Indigo
Airlines will start flying in by July 2006, but
the company is going ahead with the flight launch
in February itself, said Indigo Airlines promoter
Rahul Bhatia. The planes will be taken on
short-term lease. Promoters will hold equity worth
$80 million in Indigo Airlines initially. Later,
this would go up to $250 million, he said.
The entire bunch of Airbuses are expected to be
delivered to Indigo Airlines between 2006 and
2016.
Indigo Airlines hopes to get financial
institutions to fund the purchase of the planes to
the tune of 85%. The promoters will chip in with
funds for the rest 15%. The total cost of the 100
planes is estimated at around six billion dollars.
Indigo hopes to fly trunk and non-metro routes
alike. The company has 80 cities in mind ,which
have over one million people, Bhatia said.
OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT |
