European consortium Airbus Industrie Tuesday won its second deal in a week from India's growing budget airline business, selling 30 Airbus A320 aircraft to Air Deccan. John Leahy, chief commercial officer of Airbus, said the 1.8 billion dollar deal was a firm order for 30 aircraft starting in 2005 with an additional option for another 20 aircraft. Air Deccan started up budget services a year ago and now faces a rival low-cost carrier, Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor baron and member of parliament Vijay Mallya.
Mallya said Saturday his new carrier, which plans to hire models as flight attendants, signed a deal worth up to 1.8 billion dollars to buy as many as 30 Airbus aircraft - 10 on a firm basis with options to acquire the rest.
"Around 14 to 15 million people fly each year in India and Malaysia, but the population of India is one billion while the population of Malaysia is 34 million," Leahy said. "There is a lot of room for growth."
Leahy said Airbus had received more than 200 firm orders from budget carriers world-wide in 2004, a year in which the company's total aircraft sales would reach 325. The company is also looking for more business in India.
"We now have Deccan and Kingfisher and I am hopeful (state-owned) Indian Airlines will decide soon on its 43 aircraft," Airbus official Leahy told reporters.
Comments
Comments are closed.