New Delhi, Jun 9: Air India has now started looking for a small capacity long range (SCLR) aircraft instead of the erstwhile concept of medium capacity long range, favouring smaller planes to start serving direct on long routes carrying full payload, aviation sources said here today.The two major international aircraft manufacturers -- Airbus Industrie and Boeing -- are vying with each other with their smaller aircraft - A330-200 and Boeing 767S - To get the Indian order, the sources said.
The Airbus Industrie, which claims to have cornered 80 per cent of the global market share during the first five months of this year by selling about 150 of the 190 aircraft sold worldwide during that period, says it had offered the A330-200 to enable Air India fly a full payload non-stop from Delhi to Manchester or Kochi to Kuwait.
The sources said Airbus had last week made a presentation before the Air India board in Mumbai for this aircraft, which Airbus (India) president Kiran Rao said had the range to fly AI's747-400 Routes.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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