Kingfisher likely to order 15 more Airbus aircraft; order to be worth $3.6 billion

Bangalore: Strong industry rumours would suggest that Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, the only Indian customer for the Airbus SAS A380, might order an additional five Airbus A380 super jumbos at the Paris Air Show later this month. Along with the A380s, it is likely to opt for additional aircraft, very likely five A340-600s, placing orders that may total $3.6 billion (Rs14,400 crore) at list prices.

Kingfisher had ordered five A380s in June 2005, with options for an additional five. It plans to operate daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai to New York with these aircraft. First deliveries of the super jumbos, for Kingfisher, are expected only around 2011.

If the airline acts in accordance with market speculation, it will become only the fourth A380 customer to place additional orders for the plane, along with Emirates Airline, Singapore International Airlines and Australian carrier, Quantas.

Emirates ordered four more A380s in May this year, raising its total orders to 47, making it the biggest customer for the aircraft. Singapore Airlines, the launch customer, and Quantas, both raised their orders last year. So far, Airbus has firm orders for a total of 160 A380s from 14 customers, according to Airbus chief commercial officer, customers, John Leahy.

Kingfisher currently operates 30 planes, and in tandem with Air Deccan, whose 26% stake it picked up last week, it will become part of a 73 strong fleet of largely new aircraft.

Kingfisher is now bidding for an additional 20% stake in Air Deccan.

So far Indian carriers have ordered more than 450 planes, at a cost of $30 billion, from Airbus and Boeing over the past four years. An Airbus projection last year said that they might buy another 1,110 planes, valued at $105 billion by 2025.