Mumbai, Apr 21: With Indian Airlines being taken off the disinvestment list, the fleet acquisition plan of the domestic airline is to be taken up at a meeting with the pre-Public Investment Board scheduled for April 25. "We have been called for a pre-PIB meeting to decide on the proposal for acquisition of a mixed fleet of 43 Airbus aircraft cleared by our board in March last year", IA chairman and managing director Sunil Arora told newspersons here today. "I cannot say when the final clearances will be completed but the process (acquisition) has begun", he said at the launch of the co-branded debit card with ABN Amro and Mastercard. On the impact of flights to Singapore and Bangkok due to SARS, Arora said there has been no flight cancellation by the airline and passenger "loads have been reasonably good". All necessary precautions have been taken as advised by the Union health ministry, he added.
Referring to the performance of IA, Arora said the airline has been facing the brunt of fuel hike, insurance costs and lower traffic during the past two years.
"IA as part of major cost cutting exercise has managed to save more than Rs 150 crore in fy 03 while in fy 02 it was around Rs 258 crore", he added.
Having introduced the flexi and apex fares, IA would shortly come out with some new schemes within the next 10 days to attract customers. Bureau Report