Paramount Planning to Roll Out International Flights

Paramount Airways has signed an agreement at the Paris Air Show with European airplane maker Airbus SAS to buy ten A321 passenger jets and an option to buy 10 more. The fleet expansion will allow Paramount to start international operations in 2010. This is the only such big order from an Indian airline firm in about two years.

Overseas routes: Paramount’s M. Thiagarajan has said the carrier has got a commitment from European funding agencies to finance the purchase. The carrier will complete five years of domestic operations in 2010.Each Airbus A321 carries a list price of $90.3 million (Rs434.34 crore) but it is likely that, given the global economic slowdown, Airbus would offer some additional discounts.

Domestic carriers are expected to post combined losses of at least $2 billion for the fiscal year ended 31 March. Breaking with its earlier plans, Paramount, which flies a fleet of five Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica SA-made Embraer aircraft in the domestic market, will use the Airbus A321 for its overseas routes instead of the wide-bodied aircraft it had considered earlier.

The carrier will complete five years of domestic operations in 2010. Under Indian regulations, a carrier can start overseas operations after having serviced Indian skies for at least five years.

Paramount’s new international flights will include routes in West Asia, South-East Asia and Africa. “We are repeating the Embraer story in international routes, too. When other carriers are bleeding with large planes such as Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s, we are opting for small and mid-size Airbus planes,” said Thiagarajan, adding that the carrier has got a commitment from European funding agencies to finance the purchase.

Following its domestic model, the international flights of Paramount Airways will also have only first and business classes, Thiagarajan said. A typical Airbus A321 can include about 180 seats in an all-economy configuration, but Paramount’s A321 are likely to have 150 seats in the no-economy configuration.