Go Air is open to tying up with regional carriers to chip in its bit towards realising the Narendra Modi government’s ambitions of connecting smaller cities via air travel in India, although the low fare carrier has no plans to officially enroll for the scheme or order smaller planes.
“Maybe we will team up with a regional carrier. There are some preliminary talks. They haven’t reached a serious stage,” the airline’s managing director Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told reporters earlier Thursday.
“But we won’t take any risk. We will not go for a different fleet. Whatever we can do with Airbus A320, we will,” he added.
GoAir’s rivals have been more pro-active. IndiGo recently announced a provisional order for 50 ATR-72 planes and added it would have a separate operations team for its regional operations which would be part of the government’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme.
SpiceJetBSE -3.62 % will start 11 flights under the scheme, it announced recently.
Tying up with a regional carrier maybe tough for GoAir as carriers that started out with regional ambitions have been shutting down with alarming frequency, facing a lack of demand for their flights and a paucity of funds to stay afloat.
GoAir’s international expansion plans have been pushed back because of a delay in the deliveries of the Airbus A320Neo planes, which have been facing glitches with engines manufactured by Pratt & Whitney. The airline has received 5 of the 144 ordered planes.
Deliveries are running 8 months behind schedule, said Prock-Schauer. But he said the engine-maker is sorting issues and deliveries should stabilise soon. The airline aims to get deliveries of 13 more planes by March, in which case it will file for government approvals to start overseas flights in the upcoming winter schedule.
GoAir plans initially fly to Ghuanzhou in China and Tehran, Iran. Next up would be Middle Eastern destinations such as Doha and Bahrain. Also on the list are Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and even Europe.
Prock-Schauer also said the delays in deliveries have also affected its plans of listing in the bourses.