NEW DELHI, MAY 4: At a time when rising jet fuel costs are driving away domestic air passengers and making airline operations increasingly unsustainable, the more fuel-efficient turbo prop engines are making a strong comeback. Full-service carriers including Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, whose fleets are currently dominated by wide-bodied jet-liners like Boeing 737s and Airbus A 320s, are now aggressively ramping up their turbo prop aircraft fleet to cater to short-haul routes and stem losses.

This year alone, Jet Airways is set to increase its fleet of the 66-seater ATR turbo prop planes by a significant 55 per cent. The airline currently operates nine such aircraft and will add another five to its stable by December this year. According to Saroj Datta, chief executive of Jet Airways, “We are getting five more ATRs this year since we need smaller, more economical aircraft to cater to short-haul routes where we will begin operations soon. It makes no sense to operate big Boeings on such routes.”

Similarly, Kingfisher Airlines plan to add another 10 ATRs to its existing fleet of 18 ATRs soon. Along with Deccan, it currently has 36 ATRs in its total fleet of 83 aircraft. In sum, Kingfisher has ordered 35 ATRs over the last few years at a total deal size valued at well over $620 million. Post merger with Deccan, the airline will have the largest ATR fleet in the world. At present, USA’s largest regional airline American Eagle Airlines operating 39 ATRs is the largest turbo-prop operator world-over.

UB-group chairman and managing director Vijay Mallya also has similar reasons for venturing into the ‘small-aircraft’ space. “We find that there is a huge business opportunity to connect cities and towns which are not being serviced now,” Mallya had said earlier.

“We are not buying ATRs to conform to route disbursal guideline,” he stressed. However, many airlines are looking at small turbo-prop planes as an ideal way to satisfy route disbursal norms that currently require airlines to operate 10 per cent of their total flights to unprofitable routes like the north-east and other non-metro feeder routes.

The 66-seater ATRs which come in variants like ATR 42-500 and ATR 72-500 are much more economical to use as they consume lesser fuel and are best-suited for distances less than 500 nautical miles. “For a one hour flight, the cost of running a wide-bodied 180-seater plane like a Boeing or Airbus is approximately Rs 5 lakh. To recover this kind of cost, you need to charge something like Rs 3000 each and you will break even only at 100 per cent load factor,” explained the managing director of a regional airliner that is headquatered in Bangalore and is awaiting a license, which plans to run only ATRs.

On the other hand, an hour-long flight on an ATR would cost only Rs 1.5 lakhs and break-even would occur with a 70-80 per cent load factor. The government has also reduced sales tax on turbo props to 4 per cent. Airport and navigation charges are also exempt for regional airlines, making ATRs highly cost-efficient, he added.