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Monday, February 20, 2006

Kingfisher Airlines confirm order for 15 aircraft from ATR

Kingfisher Airlines today confirmed to a firm order, the 15 options for the ATR 72-500, it had placed for in November 2005. It also placed additional 20 options for the new planes today.
Kingfisher had in November 2005 placed an order for 20 new ATR 72-500 besides placing an option for the 15 additional aircraft.
The value of the contract is around 270 million dollars and the aircraft are scheduled for delivery from 2007 onwards.
Dr. Vijay Mallaya, Chairman and Managing Director, Kingfisher Airlines, who signed the agreement with officials from Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) at the French Embassy in presence of visiting French President Jacques Chirac, said that the deal would give a boost to air travel in the country.
The ATR 72- 500s will be used as feeder aircraft on smaller domestic routes to link Kingfisher Airlines four hubs- New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, he said.
Our experience of opening up new routes with Airbus aircraft gives us the confidence that there is a huge latent potential to connect even smaller Indian cities where a lot of wealth resides. These smaller cities also do not suffer from the infrastructural constraints at Metro airports. We see an attractive opportunity to also provide feeder services for our Airbus network, he said.
In these days of high fuel prices, the ATR 72-500 is ideal for us to exploit these opportunities in the most economical manner, he added
The aircraft would be fitted with the Elegance cabin and the newest technological innovations in the field of communications and navigation aid tools, besides in flight entertainment.
The ATR 72-500 is the latest development of the ATR-72 and shares the same power plant, six bladed propellers, interior design and soundproofing techniques of the ATR 42-500. With a standard capacity of 68 seats, the ATR 72-500 has the lowest seat mile cost and is regarded as a benchmark for the regional market.

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