Vijay Mallya may buy into Air Deccan

NEW DELHI: UB Group, the promoter of Kingfisher Airlines, is interested in picking a stake in domestic budget carrier Air Deccan, but has not yet decided on buying out the no-frills carrier, group chief Vijay Mallya said on Monday.

"Am I interested? Yes. Am I imminently acquiring it? Not decided as yet," he told reporters here when asked whether Air Deccan was in his acquisition radar.

"I don't have any current plans to acquire Air Deccan," he said in reply to a spate of questions at a press conference at IGI Airport organised to mark the visit of the world's largest aircraft, Airbus A-380.

Kingfisher, which celebrates its second anniversary on Tuesday, has given firm orders to buy five of these planes and has five more on option.

Mallya, whose airline is positioned as a full-service true value carrier, had last year sought to acquire Air Sahara. But the deal never happened due to differences over valuation and was finally clinched by Jet Airways.

On his future plans with the A-380s, the first of which would be inducted in 2010-11, the liquor baron and Rajya Sabha MP said he would operate them for non-stop long-haul flights -- from Delhi and Mumbai to New York, Chicago or even Atlanta.

Airbus Industries COO John Leahy, accompanying Mallya, said his company was holding talks with some other Indian carriers which had shown interest in acquiring the "gentle green giant" which can carry 853 passengers in a full-economy configuration.

While Leahy refused to identify which Indian airline wanted to buy A-380s, Airbus sources said Air India, Jet Airways and Air Deccan had evinced interest.

When pointed out that his airline was yet to receive permission to fly overseas, Mallya said he had made an "extremely compelling case" before the government for a review of its existing policy to allow only those airlines to fly abroad which have a 20-aircraft fleet and have operated for five years in domestic routes.

"I hope the government will make a pragmatic review" of this policy, he said.

He also hinted at low fares on the India-US sector on which Kingfisher planned to operate the A-380s, saying: "We have done detailed investigations and estimated that a ticket on the Delhi-New York route will be 25 per cent cheaper than any other aircraft operating on this route now".

According to Mallya's plans, the A-380s would be operated from India to the East Coast of the US, while the Airbus A 340-500s, which would start arriving by this year end, would be operated to the West Coast.

Regarding the flight experience planned on the A-380, Mallya claimed his airline has "always surprised everyone" by offering new products like in-flight entertainment.

"You can expect something spectacular (on A-380). It will be the finest experience. We will have a customised interior and develop appropriate designs of seats and other facilities", he said.

Mallya disagreed with an idea floated by Air Deccan chief G R Gopinath about operating the A-380 on domestic routes in full-economy configuration saying he was not sure whether the Delhi-Mumbai route would have such a market.

Besides, there would be added problems of boarding passengers on to the large aircraft, a dedicated terminal building for it and airport counters, he opined, saying that the aircraft was designed for long-haul travel only.

Airbus COO Leahy said he estimated 20 more orders from Indian carriers for the A-380. He described the aircraft as a "gentle green giant" which burnt less fuel per passenger --"even less than the fuel-efficient Tata Indica".

The European aircraft major's Executive Vice President Kiran Rao said while the A-380 burnt 2.9 litres per 100 km per passenger, the Tata Indica would spend six litres per 100 km.

Airbus has so far received firm orders for 156 A-380s from 14 customers, Rao said.

He said the aircraft, which made its maiden landing here on Sunday, had used only one-third of the entire runway and added that its sound-level was very low.

After the press conference, a group of VVIPs, including Union Ministers Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, several MPs and diplomats, were taken on the A-380 demonstration flight over Delhi.

The A-380 would fly off to Mumbai on Tuesday, taking VVIPs and mediapersons. It would conduct similar demo flights on Wednesday before flying out of the country.