GoAir places orders for 72 A-320 planes

NEW DELHI: Wadia group-owned GoAir today announced placing an order for 72 Airbus A-320 aircraft valued at about Rs 32,400 crore on list price, the second largest such order in six months.

With this order for 72 A-320 NEO (New Engine Option) planes worth USD 7.2 billion, GoAir has a total order book of 92 aircraft worth Rs 43,200 crore (USD 9.6 billion).

In January, the country's biggest no-frill carrier IndiGo had ordered a record 180 aircraft worth Rs 67,800 crore (USD 15 billion) to meet its expansion plans till 2025.

GoAir, which currently operates 10 planes with an average age of two years, had earlier placed an order for 20 A-320s.

"As part of our Vision 2020, we have placed an order for additional 72 A-320 NEO aircraft with Airbus. These aircraft will give us a further competitive advantage of up to 15 per cent on efficiency, primarily gained from a much improved fuel burn," Jeh Wadia, GoAir Managing Director said in a statement about the strategic initiative.

The company would take delivery of its additional aircraft from its previous order over the next 24 months.

Wadia terming the placement of order of an additional 72 aircraft as game-changer for GoAir and the Indian aviation sector.

"In terms of aircraft, there is tremendous potential in India which has barely six airlines with 350 aircraft catering to a billion people, compared to China's 1,100.

Incidentally, with all the present orders placed by Indian carriers, we would reach 1,100 aircraft by 2020", Wadia said.

Noting that US domestic carrier SouthWest alone had close to 700 planes in its fleet, he said European carrier Ryan Air sold around 65 million seats last year compared to a total of 54 million sold by all Indian carriers together.

"With India's GDP growing at a brisk 8 to 9 per cent per annum, we see a great future ahead for the aviation sector, including GoAir. Our strategy is to fly those who currently don't fly," Wadia said.

The airline also announced appointment of Giorgio De Roni, a former chief revenue officer of Italian airline Air One, as its new CEO who would take over from Kaushik Khona.

GoAir currently operates across 18 destinations 133 daily flights and around 931 weekly flights.