Airlines Deals

European planemaker Airbus said on Monday that Indian low-cost airline GoAir was buying 10 of its A320 planes, worth USD$670 million at list prices.

GoAir, owned by India’s Wadia Group, also has an option to buy 10 more A320s, Airbus said at the Farnborough International Airshow.

The deal was the only firm order for Airbus planes announced on the first day of the show where the planemaker has been explaining how it will address delays in its A380 superjumbo.

GoAir said it expects to take deliveries of the aircraft next year to increase flights on existing routes within India, which has experienced a boom in air travel in recent years.

“At the moment we are consolidating the routes that we fly on and we are looking at only those routes,” GoAir Managing Director Jeh Wadia said on the sidelines of the air show.

GoAir has no immediate plans to fly outside of India, he said.

GoAir, which already has a fleet of leased A320s, was launched in November last year.

Wadia said that GoAir was not interested in buying any assets from Indian carrier Air Sahara. A deal by private airline Jet Airways to buy Air Sahara for USD$500 million collapsed last month.

Indian carriers are expected to dominate orders at the Farnborough show.

India’s Kingfisher Airlines was close to a deal to buy 10 new engines from engine consortium International Aero Engines (IAE), a source familiar with the situation said earlier.

India’s Deccan Aviation also said on Monday it would buy 60 new engines from IAE.

IAE is a multinational consortium of Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Japanese Aero Engines and MTU Aero Engines.

Airbus said the GoAir planes are to be powered by CFM International engines, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Snecma.