The Hindu Business Line : Aerion Corp expects orders worth $400 m from India

Mumbai, March 12 Aerion Corporation, the US-based company developing supersonic business jets, expects $400 million worth of orders from India as five customers have given letters of intent for the same.

The order size could go up to $640 million as the company anticipates three more orders in the next three months, said the company’s global distributor on Tuesday.

The jet is expected to have a launch price tag of $80 million each and deliveries are scheduled to begin from the last quarter of 2014, said Mr Peter Smales, Executive Director for ExecuJet Aviation Group, the Zurich-based distributor for the jet. However, India would receive its first order only by 2015 or 2016, he added. Apart from India, the company has got a customer in Pakistan too.

“India is absolutely exploding at the moment and it’s a great time to bring our aviation business here. There is a lot of logic in having a supersonic business jet product in India with the young generation of wealthy entrepreneurs building global empires,” said Mr Smales.

Though ExecuJet declined to reveal names of the customers, he said the global distributor plans to enter into a joint venture for business jet aircraft sales, maintenance and management service in India.

“We want to partner with an individual with similar chemistry, the announcement for which would be made in the next four to six weeks,” said Mr Smales on sidelines of the press conference declining to disclose the possible associate.

The Aerion jet is designed to cruise at speeds up to 1.15 Mach overland without producing a sonic boom on the ground, and at speeds up to 1.6 Mach in other areas, said Mr Smales. It would seat 8-12 passengers and have a range in excess of 4,000 nautical miles, powered by two Pratt & Whitney engines, he said.

Orders from India are part of 40 pre-delivery orders received by Aerion worldwide. Customers have paid initial refundable deposits of $2,50,000 for each plane, which is scheduled to have its first test flight in 2011-12. A formal contract is expected to be signed with the Indian customers by the end of 2009 with a payment of $10 million for each plane, he said.

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