Air India has invited tenders to dry lease out seven of its aircraft, three Boeing 777-200LRs and four Airbus A310 freighters.
It hopes to dry lease out the 777s for 24 months or more, and the A310s for 18 months or more, says Air India.
Air India would prefer to lease out the 777s starting from the third quarter of 2010, it says.
All three 777s are owned by Golden State Aircraft LLC, according to Flightglobal's ACAS database.
The A310s are available immediately and all four are owned by Air India, according to ACAS.
On 29 September Air India said it aims to achieve cost savings of 13 billion Indian rupees ($272 million) in the remaining six months of its fiscal year.
The ailing carrier is targeting cost savings in a number of areas, it says. From its operational restructuring alone Air India hopes to achieve cost savings of four billion Indian rupees.
Other areas where the carrier hopes to reduce costs in the next six months include aircraft material costs, fuel, the renegotiations of handling contracts with airports, the elimination of wasteful expenditure, rentals and other administrative costs.
Air India made a loss of around 50 billion Indian rupees ($1 billion) for the year to 31 March. It has been losing money for years and has asked the government for an equity infusion of 12.31 billion Indian rupees and a soft loan of 27.5 billion Indian rupees that will be repaid over 15 years.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
