Air Sahara to purchase 10 jets from Boeing

India’s Air Sahara has placed an order of 10 jets with US aerospace giant; Boeing Co. In what could be termed as a boom in India’s air travel, the U.S. aircraft maker doubled its estimate for the country’s airplane demand and picked up this order from Air Sahara for 10 B737-800 passenger jets worth more than $700 million.

“The planes will start being delivered in mid-2009,”said Dinesh Keskar, the company's senior vice president of sales for South Asia and Southeast Asia. “We are proud of the long-term relationship we have had with Air Sahara,” Keskar said.

According to the prediction made by Boeing, over the next two decades, India will need 856 commercial jets worth more than $72 billion. It says that this forecast is based on India's fast growing economy and rising demand for air travel.

Talking about Air Sahara’s order, Alok Sharma, president of the company said, “This order reflects our confidence both in the growth of India's aviation market and Air Sahara's modernization and expansion plans.”

With this order India makes the second major purchase of Boeing planes this month. Two weeks ago another low-cost airline, Spicejet, made a $1.1billion sale and lease agreement for new Boeing 737 passenger jets.

This year has been important for the Indian aviation industry with some major deals being signed up. One of the biggest deals in Indian aviation history was made earlier this year by State-run Air India which signed an agreement to buy 68 Boeing airliners with a list price of $11 billion.

Low-cost carrier Air Sahara reportedly dropped its share in the Indian market from 13 percent to 8 percent after it entered into the $500 million deal with Jet Airways. Officials at the airline said that a recovery is being hoped for.

Air travel is recently facing a gush in India because of rising middle-class incomes along with the availability of low-cost Airlines. Demands for new jets are rising with domestic passenger traffic growing 25 percent annually.