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BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
11 September, 2005: The Indian Airlines fleet acquisition programme
has received the final approval from the Union Cabinet. The state-run air craft carrier wants to buy 43 Airbus aircraft as part of its ambitious fleet expansion plan, media reports said.
A group of ministers (GoM) was constituted to consider the final nod to the plan. The group held a meeting with Airbus aides as well as IA top brass. The GoM grilled the Airbus aides as well as top brass of the Indian Airlines on issues ranging from price rise to discounts in aircraft pricing, finally earning a Rs 347 crore discount.
The size of the deal is put around Rs 10,000 crore. The group of Ministers included Finance Minsiter Chidambaram and his counterparts in Law, Plan implementation and Civil Aviation Ministry. The issue of probable price escalation was also put forth to the Airbus aides .
Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad and Deputy Managing Director of IA, Sushma Chawla were present while David Zeigler headed the Airbus team. It may be recalled that Airbus Industrie had signed the first pact for the sale of an aircraft to India in 974. Though an agreement was reached, the details weren’t revealed to the media to keep the Prime Minister informed about the proceedings.
The Prime Minister announced the deal in his media meet with British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who was on a trip here. Dr Singh said the government has cleared the $2.2. billion fleet acquisition plan of the state-run carrier.
With the government managing to get some benefits through hard bargining, the deal is expected to be in the range of Rs 9890 crore, though it as earlier expected to be more than Rs 10,000 crore.
Airbus has also agreed to set up a a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility and set up a pilot training centre, as part of the deal. IA will acquire 19-Airbus A-319 aircraft with a seating capacity of 122 apart from 20 Airbus A-321aircraft which will seat 172 passengers and four A-320 aircraft , which will seat 140 passengers.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
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