Kingfisher Airlines to buy 50 Airbus aircraft

New Delhi, June 20: Kingfisher Airlines today agreed to purchase 50 more Airbus aircraft for domestic and international operations.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman of the UB Group which is the parent company of Kingfisher Airlines, and Mr John Leahy, Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Airbus' customers division, at 47th International Paris Air show in Le Bourget.

The agreement is for 15 A350-800 XWBs in addition to the five converted from their original order for the A350, 10 A330-200s, five A340-500s and 20 A320 family aircraft.

''Our strategy at Kingfisher is to open new long haul routes and expand existing ones,'' said Dr Mallya.

''With the A340-500 and then the A350 XWB, we will be able to offer direct routes between India and the United States for example.

The A330 will allow us to expand services to Europe and the A320s will help us to meet demand in our home region.'' Kingfisher has also ordered two versions of Rolls-Royce Trent to power 25 new Airbus widebody airliners. The value of the engine business at list prices is one billion dollars.

The order consists of 20 firm A350 XWB-800 twinjets which are offered with Trent XWB and five A340-500s for which Trent 500 is the sole engine.

Kingfisher has already become one of the country's largest airlines. Including the latest MoU, Kingfisher and its partner airline Air Deccan now have a commitment for a total of 176 Airbus aircraft covering the single aisle, widebody including the A380 and the Airbus corporate jet.

The A320 family, which also includes A318, the A319 and the A321, is recognised as the benchmark in the single-aisle aircraft market.

So far over 5,070 of them have been ordered.

The A350 XWB (extra wide body), is Airbus' newest aircraft designed to set new standards in fuel-efficiency.

Offering operational flexibility, the A330/A340 family offers leadership in the 240 to 380 seat category with more than 710 in operation worldwide, with almost 80 operators. There is an order backlog of more than 300 aircraft.

UNI