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Air Deccan to up fleet size to 30

August 02, 2005
Air Deccan, the country's first low cost airlines, has chalked out an ambitious expansion plan, including augmenting its fleet to 30 aircraft by the end of this fiscal and setting up a modern hangar in Chennai in the next six months, its managing director Capt G R Gopinath said.

"We are planning to add one aircraft per month for the next 64 months and 100 additional flights every year for the next five years," Gopinath said in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Air Deccan has expanded from one flight and one aircraft and currently operates close to 123 flights per day, with a fleet size of 20 aircraft by the end of this month, including five Airbus, A 320 (180 seater) and 12 ATR 42s (48 seaters).

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The airline has ordered 62 new aircraft (32 Airbus A- 320s and 30 ATR 72-500s) to be delivered over the next five years, taking its flights close to 600 per day by the end of five years, to make it one of the largest airline services in the private sector, he said.

"We plan to add two-three towns every month," he said, adding that the focus would be in connecting unconnected smaller towns including Nasik, Raipur and Jamshedpur to the metros "because of the huge passenger potential in the smaller towns due to its affordable price range".

On the maintenance side, he said Air Deccan proposed to build a modern hanger at Chennai airport, for which the Airports Authority of India has sanctioned 65,000 sq ft of area.

"Within the next six months, the hangar will be ready, " he said.

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