Air Deccan selects IAE for aero engine service

Bangalore, Jul 18: IAE International Aero Engines today announced that Air Deccan had backed its fleet expansion of 30 V2500-powered aircraft and a 500SelectSM services agreement.

The agreement would be extended to cover Air Deccan's existing fleet and an earlier firm order of 30 Airbus A320 family aircraft.

The latest engine order was valued at more than US Dollar 500 million and brought the total firm V2500-powered A320 family aircraft on order to 60, a release here said.

IAE President Mark King said after the agreement was signed at the Farnborough air show that ''Air Deccan has been in the vanguard of the Indian air transport revolution and has firmly established a successful, low-cost fare model in a rapidly growing and highly competitive market...With the introduction of V2500SelectSM for its entire fleet, Air Deccan will not only enjoy the low and predictable maintenance costs that this OEM-backed service can bring, but will also be able to focus on achieving its vision of affordable air transport in India for the common man.'' Air Deccan Managing Director G R Gopinath said ''the V2500 has played a vital part in our success to date with its reliable and fuel-efficient operation and through V2500SelectSM, we expect to see ongoing improvements not only in terms of performance, but also asset value.'' V2500SelectSM was a combined engine upgrade and aftermarket support programme, which improved fuel burn, reduced operating costs and offered time-on-wing improvements. Engine upgrades were planned to be released for production in 2008 and would be retrofittable to the in-service fleet, the release said.

V2500-A5 was available in seven different thrust settings in 22,000-33,000lb range to power Airbus A319, A320 and A321 family of aircraft as well as the A319 Corporate Jet.

UNI