The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan lowers revenue target to Rs 40.5 crore

AIR Deccan, the country's sole low-cost airline, has lowered its revenue earnings for the year ending March 31, 2005, to $90 million (Rs 40.49 crore) from $120 million (Rs 53.98 crore) projected earlier.

Confirming the scale down, the Air Deccan Managing Director, Captain G. R. Gopinath, said that a slight delay in the induction of the Airbus A-320 aircraft, as also some other technical problems, had forced the airline to lower its revenue earning estimates.

There was a delay of about two months in the induction of the Airbus A-320 aircraft. The airline took delivery of the first Airbus aircraft in July and deployed it soon for starting regular flights on the trunk routes. The airline launched its trunk route operations with a flight on the Bangalore-Delhi sector.

"However, despite the revenue target being lowered, we are set to report an operating profit and should have carried about 1.5 million passengers by the end of March next year. We are confident that our third Airbus A-320 aircraft will start operating from November 25 this year," Capt Gopinath said.

The airline has drawn up a major expansion plan, which is to see it not only add more aircraft but also increase the number of domestic sectors on which it would operate.

"Our plan is to have a fleet of 30 Airbus and 30 ATR aircraft within the next five years. We hope to take a decision in the next 15-20 days on how many of the 60 aircraft should be leased and how many should be purchased. We have estimated that we would require about Rs 200 crore over the next five years for acquiring the aircraft," Capt Gopinath said.

At present, the airline has two Airbus A-320 aircraft and at least seven smaller ATR aircraft. Meanwhile, the airline has already drawn up plans for operating a daily flight with an ATR aircraft on the Bangalore-Agatti-Kochi sector from December this year. It also has plans to link seven northern States with Delhi shortly, a move, which will see it offer flights on routes like Delhi-Bhopal-Jabalpur and Delhi-Agra and Delhi-Chandigarh.

On the trunk routes, it plans to start operating to Kolkata from Delhi by December.