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Indian Airlines Finalizes Deal With Airbus for Buying 43 Planes

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 09:00 CST

Indian Airlines finalizes deal with Airbus for buying 43 planes NEW DELHI, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Indian Airlines, the state-owned domestic carrier, signed a final pact Monday with French aircraft manufacturer Airbus Industries to buy 43 planes with 2 billion US dollars.

Kiran Rao, Airbus vice president (marketing and contracts), and Indian Airlines chairman V. Trivedi signed the agreement while French President Chirac and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met here Monday.

According to the agreement, Indian Airlines will buy 19 A-319 planes, four A-320s and 20 A-321s. The first aircraft will be delivered in October or early November this year and all the order will be completed by 2010.

The two companies first reached the deal in April 2002 but the Indian government did not pass it till September last year.

Indian Airlines has a fleet of about 90 aircraft. It has not bought any new plane for about a decade and kept leasing aircraft to meet the increasing business demand.

Indian Airlines and Air India are the only two state-owned air carriers in India. The former runs domestic flights and the latter takes up international service.

In January this year, Air India has just signed a pact with US airplane maker Boeing to buy 68 commercial planes.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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