Tata-SIA, which plans to set up a full service airline here, has chosen the Airbus A-320 aircraft to start its operations.

Confirming the development, a senior Tata official said a decision to acquire 20 brand-new leased aircraft was firmed up in Mumbai about three weeks back.

“The airline will take the aircraft on lease, there is a financer who will buy the aircraft and lease it to Tata-SIA. The aircraft will be inducted in a staggered manner although the induction schedule is yet to be firmed up,” sources indicated. The aircraft will be taken on a lease period of up to 12 years.

Neither the identity of the leasing company nor how much the new start up airline will pay for the aircraft, was not immediately made available. Normally, the global market rate for leasing an Airbus A-320 will be between $300,000- 400,000 a month, sources said.

The airline is a joint venture in which Tata Sons has a 51 per cent stake, with Singapore Airlines taking up 49 per cent. The airline project, which got the nod of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in October last year, will be launched with an initial investment of $100 million, including a foreign direct investment component of $49 million

“The order carries forward the tradition of a majority of start up airlines in India taking to the skies with Airbus,” Kiran Rao, Executive Vice-President, Airbus, told Business Line.

ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

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