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Alliance hopes to induct leased aircraft by Jan

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, Dec. 24

DESPITE slippages in the arrival dates of its leased aircraft during December, Alliance Air is hopeful of inducting all the five leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft into its fleet by the end of January 2001.

``At the moment, the aircraft are undergoing technical checks and donning the Alliance colours in Singapore. There has been some slippage during this month as the aircraft which was to come on December 22 has not arrived. Another was supposed to come on December 29 and may not come. However, these delays are unlikely to affect the plans for induction of all five aircraft by end of January 2001,'' senior airline officials told Business Line.

Meanwhile, the airline is evaluating where the additional leased capacity should be stationed. Officials said that stations being examined included Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Officials said that with the leased capacity, the airline planned to offer addi tional services in different parts of the country including the north-eastern sector.

``The final routing and daily schedule of these aircraft will be drawn up once the exact date of arrival is known. If the aircraft arrive during the peak season they may be deployed in a particular sector. But the scenario may change if they arrive after the season and this may necessitate stationing them in other areas to serve different parts of the country,'' officials said.

However, irrespective of when the aircraft arrive, their induction will prove a boon to the daily loads being carried by Indian Airlines. Officials conceded that after the crash of an Alliance aircraft in Patna in July, passenger loads had fallen to as l ow as 2,900 per day.

But a series of initiatives and the price differential between what is charged by Jet Airways and the State-owned carrier had helped loads touch almost 6,000 passengers per day.

IA is already seeing a boom in passengers with the daily average in December touching almost 23,000 passengers.