The Hindu Business Line : Air Deccan to replace aged ATR aircraft

Bangalore, Aug. 10 Air Deccan has decided to replace all its eight aged ATR aircraft with newer ones as it tries to dust itself of a poor record of on-time performance and efficiency.

A press statement from the airline said all ATRs which are over 10 years old were found to be plagued with technical snags and maintenance issues. While two ATR42-320s out of three have already gone back to those who had leased the aircraft to the airline, six more including five ATR42-500s will be sent back in phases.

They will be replaced with new generation ATR72-500s and 10 of these are already part of the airline fleet. Deccan Aviation, which runs Air Deccan, had placed orders for 30 new ATR72-500s in 2005. Each of these had a list price of $18 million.

Time targets

“The mandate of our operations’ strategy is to achieve all departures as per schedule. We are pursuing the objective with clinical incisiveness. We have decided to build a fleet of entirely new aircraft,” Air Deccan’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ramki Sundaram, said in a press statement.

The airline now has a fleet of 43 aircraft comprising 20 new 180 seater Airbus 320s and 12 new 72 seater ATR72-500s, 10 ATR42-500s and one ATR42-320.

Mr Sundaram said ATR42-320s have aged and require increased down time for maintenance, adversely impacting punctuality. “The cumulative effect of these issues lead to increased down time of the aircraft, poor operational efficiency and needless to say, delayed departures,” the statement said.

As a start up airline, Air Deccan bought a small fleet of old ATRs as these carried lower lease rentals, were affordable and well suited for non-metro routes, the statement said.