Nicholas Ionides / Mumbai
India’s Jet Airways is again looking at acquiring Embraer regional jets to replace its fleet of leased ATR turboprops.
Executive director Saroj Datta says internal studies have been relaunched into the viability of adding Embraer 170/175 large regional jets and “in the next couple of years we should probably have them”.
In 2002, Jet signed a letter of intent with Embraer covering the purchase of 10 78-seat E-175s plus 10 options, but the deal was never firmed up.
Since then, the airline has considered following through with an order on several occasions, only to decide against it.
However, Datta says the studies are now more serious because there will be a need to replace its eight ATR 72-500 turboprops, the first of which entered service in 1999 originally on leases of around five to six years.
“The ATRs are now getting seven or eight years old,” says Datta. “We have an understanding with ATR and have been extending the leases by one or two years.”
Source: Flight International
