Boeing, Airbus Vie for $2 Billion Air One Order in India

India’s Air One Aviation Pvt. is seeking $2 billion of jets to take on Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s (SIA) venture in the country, stoking competition in a market where carriers lost almost $10 billion in seven years.

Air One, among six companies that last month got initial approval to start airlines in India, is looking at Airbus Group NV’s (AIR) A320s and Boeing Co.’s (BA) 737s, its director Alok Sharma said in an interview yesterday. At list prices, 20 Boeing 737-900ERs cost $1.98 billion, although airlines typically get discounts.

“You can’t start with one plane and wait for another six months to get the next one,” Sharma said in his office near New Delhi’s airport, adding Air One plans to provide full-service flights from mid-2015. “The launch will be decided by availability of aircraft in a contiguous manner.”

Sharma, undeterred by one of the world’s costliest aviation markets, said he sees growing demand for air travel and reduced capacity because some airlines in India are struggling. Singapore Airlines -- partnering with the Tata Group -- plans to fly its full-service Indian venture Vistara this year. AirAsia (India) Pvt. began operating a low-cost carrier in June.
Read news in full 28/08/14 Bloomberg.com

Airbus’s $6.8 Billion Kingfisher Order Hinges on Takeover

Airbus Group NV (AIR) said it’ll keep an 82-plane order from defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (KAIR) on its books while there’s still a chance that the Indian carrier might find a buyer which would require new aircraft.

The order concerns 67 A320 narrow-body jetliners and 15 twin-aisle A330s with a list price of $6.8 billion.

“If Kingfisher finds a new buyer for the airline that buyer would need single-aisle planes, so for that reason we’ll keep them until the airline is completely shut down,” Kiran Rao, Airbus’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said in a briefing at the company’s base in Toulouse, France.

CBI to examine top Airbus executive in aircraft deal probe

New Delhi: A CBI team will visit London by next week to examine Airbus's executive vice-president Kiran Rao in connection with alleged irregularities in the over Rs 8,000 crore deal for supply of 43 aircraft to the erstwhile Indian Airlines in 2005.

Sources said some clarifications were needed from Rao on alleged non-fulfillment of conditions given in the supply contract. Sources said order for the visit of the team headed by a superintendent of police was issued and the team might leave by next week to record evidence.

Sources said after nearly a year-long probe, CBI felt the need to examine senior executives of Airbus about some crucial points which had come up during investigation of the case in which senior officials of the erstwhile Indian Airlines have been named as accused along with Airbus functionaries.

CBI presses ahead with Airbus probe

New Delhi: A year after registering a case for alleged irregularities in the Rs. 8,399-crore deal struck by the erstwhile Indian Airlines with Airbus Industrie for supply of 43 passenger planes, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided to send a team to the U.K. to record the statement of a top executive of the European consortium.

“Investigations conducted so far have thrown up some questions on the basis of which we will seek clarifications from Airbus executive vice-president Kiran Rao,” said a senior CBI official here on Thursday. The move indicates that the investigation is being speeded up. The deal was finalised during the UPA-I regime when NCP leader Praful Patel was the Civil Aviation Minister.

The deal came under the CBI scanner, and the agency registered a case in March 2013 against seven senior functionaries of Indian Airlines, which was later merged with Air India, and Airbus.

Tata-SIA airline to lease 20 Airbus A-320 planes to launch flights

Doha: Start-up carrier Tata-SIA Airlines, which is yet to get a flying permit, will acquire at least 20 Airbus aircraft on lease from a Singapore-based firm to launch their operations in India by this winter.
"Tata-SIA has placed orders for leasing of 20 Airbus A-320s from us," Claire Leow, Head of Investor Relations of BOC Aviation Private Limited, told PTI on the sidelines of the ongoing IATA annual general meeting here.
She said the deliveries of these aircraft are likely to start from the third quarter of this year "around September-October". BOC Aviation has already leased several aircraft to two Indian airlines -- Jet Airways and SpiceJet.