GoAir stake sale all speculation: Wadia

Mumbai: A flurry of statements over the weekend put paid to any speculation that Wadia Group's GoAirlines (India) Pvt. Ltd, which runs low-fare carrier GoAir, was moving towards a stake sale with regional carrier, Chennai-based Paramount Airways Ltd. A media statement by GoAir on Saturday was followed by a statement from GoAir managing director, Jeh Wadia, on Sunday, which denied any move to sell stake to Paramount Airways.

In his statement on Sunday, Wadia said GoAir was gaining industry leadership position and had received several investment proposals. For the period January-August 2009, GoAir is credited with a market share of 5.7% as compared to 2% for Paramount.

From Chennai, M Thiagarajan, managing director, Paramount Airways, also denied any talks with GoAir for a possible acquisition.

According to GoAir, the company's board had decided not to proceed with any divestment proposal and instead focus on its business plan of adding another 12 aircraft to its existing fleet of eight aircraft. This would meet the company's commitment of taking delivery of 20 Airbus aircraft which the company had bought in the year 2007 for $1.2 billion.

GoAir's eight brand new A320 aircraft currently fly to 12 destinations with 377 weekly flights.