GoAir plans to expand routes; add to fleet

GoAir's new chief executive officer Giorgio De Roni is seen during an announcement at the 49th Paris Air Show at the Le Bourget airport near Paris June 23, 2011.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian budget airline Go Airlines (India) Ltd said on Thursday it will add six new flights across three new routes from Oct 8 and will induct three Airbus A320 aircraft between October and April next year.

The addition of new routes across Kolkata, Ranchi and Port Blair will increase GoAir's network to 21 destinations across India, with 588 weekly flights, the privately held firm said in a statement.

The Indian airline is in the midst of an ambitious expansion programme. In June it placed an order worth $7.2 billion with Airbus (EAD.PA) to meet rising demand for air travel in Asia's third largest economy.

To meet local demand, no frills carriers like GoAir, IndiGo and SpiceJet (SPJT.BO) are busy expanding regional operations.

SpiceJet recently launched a regional operation based out of Hyderabad initially with four Bombardier turboprop aircraft it has recently added to its fleet. SpiceJet has 34 planes at present and plans to add another 11 by July-end.

While most Indian carriers are betting big on the budget space, Kingfisher Airlines (KING.NS), India's No 2 private airline, announced on Wednesday it plans to exit the low-cost business and focus on its premium model as the budget segment had become too competitive..

(Reporting by Aniruddha Basu; Editing by Sunil Nair)