India Inc flies high, on the latest corporate jetliners

Friday, June 02, 2006  01:31 IST

MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani are among the corporate aristocrats who are fuelling India Incorporated’s recent aircraft-acquisition spree.

Mukesh, chairman of Reliance Industries, is said to be buying an Airbus 319 CJ. The Airbus corporate jetliner, as the long-range plane is known, competes with the Bombardier Global Express (which Ambani already owns) and the Gulfstream V in globe-trotting ability. The price tag? Only about Rs300 crore.

Anil, chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is also believed to be replenishing his convoy He has a King Air, which is maintained in Delhi, and a nine-seat Falcon 2000. He is understood to have already placed an order for a Bombardier Global Express 5000, which will be delivered next year. This plane is also expected to cost Rs300 crore.

Many other corporate houses — including Videocon, Raymond, and Jaiprakash Associates — have secured approvals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to purchase aircraft.

Gautam Singhania, managing director of Raymond, is said to have bought a Bombardier Challenger 604 costing Rs75 crore. The plane will be delivered in a couple of months. Videocon Industries is picking up a Beech King Air 350 for private use, while Jubilant Enpro, part of Gujarat’s Jubilant group, will acquire a Beech 1900D.                   

The Baldota group’s iron ore mining company MSPL Ltd has chosen a Cessna Citation, while Jaiprakash Associates will fly a Hawker 850 XP for private use. Even the DLF group, a real-estate major with an impending public issue of over Rs13,000 crore, is looking at aviation. It is said to have acquired the scheduled airline Archana Airways. The latter has been flying largely to the Northeast. As part of its non-scheduled air transport passenger services, DLF is said to be buying a Gulfstream too.

The big-bang order of the lot would, perhaps, be the one by Mukesh Ambani. Before he boards the A319 CJ, his company will have taken delivery of another plane - a Falcon 900 EX, which costs about Rs75 crore.

Sources said Ambani may fix all the royal accoutrements - including a lounge, Jacuzzi, bedrooms, and a conference room - in his flying Airbus office. The bill? Go guess.

Reliance Industries already owns five aircraft, including the Bombardier Global Express, which was bought for about Rs250 crore two years ago, a Gulfstream-IV (likely to be phased out), a King Air, and a Hawker-Siddeley.

“The A319 CJ is much bigger - it’s a regular passenger plane with enough space for cargo,” says an aviation expert. The outfitting of the aircraft is currently being done at Toulouse in France, and, if all goes well, it could fly to India by the yearend.

Aviation experts said all these purchases, which are a mix of private use and non-scheduled services, are the outcome of the growing Indian economy. Almost all the big corporations have a stake in sectors such as infrastructure, including roads, power, and special economic zones, which are on the front burner.

“With corporations wanting to leverage the infrastructure boom, these aircraft come in handy to transport them to far-off project locales,” said a senior pilot who has turned consultant. Also, they don’t have to rely on the vagaries of scheduled flight carriers who anyway do not offer first-class facilities, said another aviation expert.

So for them, it is a case of: if we can’t get what we want, then let’s fly our own planes.