Foreign Fly: Kingfisher Plans Charter Service

By Saurabh Sinha

NEW DELHI: Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has found a way to utilize the wide-bodied aircraft A-330s and A-340s, which will join its fleet by month-end, to be deployed on international routes. The airline is talking to large travel houses and corporates for chartering the Airbus A-330s and A-340s for foreign jaunts.

The airline had earlier planned to use the three A-330s, on domestic routes like Bangalore-Delhi sector, before the Deccan- Kingfisher combine becomes eligible to fly abroad from August 26. Now this option, said sources, is unlikely to be exercised.

Apron side of domestic terminals at airports in India have parking bays for medium size planes, like A-320 or Boeing-737.

Using an A-330 on domestic flights would mean parking this plane on international terminal side that has bays for bigger planes. “Then both passengers and baggage would have to be transported over the long distance between international and domestic side, which does not seem to be an ideal option for travellers,” said an official.

The 215-seater A-330 is cost effective when used for under 10- hour flights like India-Europe. The 250-seater A-340 can fly non- stop for 19.5 hours on routes like India-US. The airline had initially planned to use A-330 for domestic routes and keep the A- 340 parked in Bangalore. But the waiting plan seems to be changing.

“These planes are more likely to be used for crew training and charters. We have started contacting travel houses and corporates for chartering these planes,” said the official. Kingfisher had tried to lease these planes to other carriers, including Air India, but found few takers as these planes were being given only for three to four months. The airline has got clearance from the aviation ministry’s aircraft acquisition committee to induct three A-330s and two A-340s in next three months.

While the GVK Group has asked airlines to deploy twin aisle planes on Delhi-Mumbai routes, airlines say using big aircraft meant for long haul sectors on domestic sector is an unviable option.

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