Indian Airlines has floated tenders to lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft to launch new foreign operations, while its subsidiary Alliance Air would lease two business jets for operations of oil major ONGC.
The IA tenders, to be opened on November 21, expresses the carrier's interest in leasing 12 aircraft -- either A-310-300s, A-330, A-340 or Boeing-767 (Extended Range) and B-777s -- for a period of five years, extendable up to seven.
This is the second time this year that IA has floated the tenders for wide-bodied aircraft as the previous tenders did not receive any firm response.
The arrival of the wide-bodied planes would enable IA to launch services to the UK and East Asia in the winter this year. The airline has already sought government permission to operate to these destinations.
The Alliance Air-ordered business jets would be used for movement of ONGC personnel and, especially the Crisis Management Team, to various locations in India and overseas. The two planes, which would be dry-leased for five to seven years from March-August next year, would be operated and maintained by the IA subsidiary.
The IA has also reworked its induction plans for the 43 Airbus aircraft, under which the A-319s which were to be used by Alliance Air, would now be operated by the parent company for strengthening its domestic network, sources said.
The IA subsidiary would continue to operate the turbo-prop ATR-52 aircraft and its pilots gradually inducted into the IA and trained for A-319 operations, they said.
The arrival of the wide-bodied planes would enable the IA to launch services to Manchester and Birmingham in the winter this year as also to destinations in East Asia.
The airline's plans to acquire 43 aircraft -- 19 A-319s, four A-320s and 20 A-321 planes at a cost of Rs 9,890 crore (Rs 98.90 billion) -- has recently got the government nod.
As per the tentative delivery schedule, the first purchased aircraft would join the fleet in the second half of next year and the remaining 42 would be inducted at an average rate of one plane per month.
The tenders for these aircraft is likely to lead the public sector carrier, which has just come out of the red, to pay the Withholding Tax (WHT) that could hike the lease cost per aircraft by up to 40 per cent.
The exemption on paying WHT for lease of aircraft or their engines from foreign sources, introduced in this year's budget, expired on September 30.
However if the lessor firm is based in a country with which India has a double taxation agreement, then no WHT would be imposed.
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