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Ashwini Phadnis

New Delhi , Oct. 6

By next summer, passengers travelling with Alliance Air could be jetting around the country in brand new 70-seater regional jets.

At the moment, the airline is considering whether the regional jets should have single or twin class configuration and whether those travelling in the premium class should be served food or not.

A regional airliner is a small airliner designed to fly 35-100 passengers from point to point as efficiently as possible.

"The aircraft are fast and have low break-even, which make them ideally suited for carrying out the flying duties that Alliance performs," a senior airline official told Business Line.

"The idea of inducting these aircraft is to have low operating costs. A team is currently evaluating the option and a firm decision can be expected very soon."

Alliance carried 1.47 million passengers in 2004-05, the latest year for which data is available.

It has a fleet of ageing Boeing 737-200, ATR and Dornier aircraft.

The airline recently entered the market to lease six more ATR aircraft to augment its services.

The proposed induction of the regional jets would coincide with Indian inducting brand new Airbus aircraft into its fleet, which would provide a new flying experience replete with in-flight entertainment system.

Alliance may look at outsourcing the engineering work for the regional jets, while keeping handling of the new aircraft as an in-house activity.

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