Mumbai: Soon, passengers will have an additional option to fly internationally. The Low Cost Carrier (LCC), GoAir, will be commencing its international operations towards the end of the fiscal year. Moreover, it will increase the number of current aircrafts from 23 to 37 by the year-end.
The fifth biggest airline by market share had received permissions from the government to fly international last year in August. This permission was received to fly and operate from March 2017 in nine places, including Iran, China, Vietnam, Maldives, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The airline had, however, sought approval to fly to 14 and not nine countries. It wasn’t been granted permission to fly to Kuwait, Oman, Turkey, Thailand and UAE.
According to Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, managing director & CEO of GoAir, though no destinations have been finalised as of now, the airline’s will is keen to begin flying international towards the end of the current fiscal year. “We will have 30 per cent of the fleets to be flying oversees for us soon. It will, however, take two years to utilise the 30 per cent fleets to the international destinations.”
The airline that had in June 2011 placed order for 72 new A-320 neo aircraft, valued at about '32,400 crore, is set to increase its current 23 aircrafts to a total of 37 by the end of the fiscal year. These 37 aircrafts will include 18 new neo aircrafts and the remaining would be the A320s. The airline also claimed that it had touched 90 per cent of the total load factor. It had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus for 72 A-320 neo aircraft in a deal worth around $7.7 billion. After this, an agreement for 72 A-320 neo (new engine option) was signed in 2011.
GoAir currently operates across 23 destinations with over 1225 weekly flights and approximately 2,000 plus connections weekly. The airline uses state-of-the-art Airbus A320 and A320neo aircraft fleet.
