With Indian Airlines' fleet acquisition process no where near completion, the airline is planning to lease five Airbus A-320s. Airline sources said the move is primarily to stem the decline in market share.

The airline hopes to induct all the five planes by the winter schedule to meet peak season demand. The A-320s, which will be inducted in a phased manner, will be taken on dry lease.

The dry lease monthly rental for an A-320 ranges between $90,000 and $100,000. IA's utilisation per A-320 aircraft during a year is 3,178 hours.

Sources said that there would have been no need to lease aircraft if the fleet acquisition process had been on schedule.

If the suggestions of the IA technical committee on fleet acquisition were followed, the first batch of eight planes would have been inducted in the first half of 2005.

According to the official data, IA's market share, in terms of passengers carried, slipped to 39.5 per cent in the first four months of 2003 in comparison with a 42.5 per cent share in 2002. Jet Airways and Air Sahara had market shares of 49.8 per cent and 10.7 per cent, respectively, in January-April 2003.

IA's board of directors had approved the leasing proposal in June 2003 and had suggested that a technical committee be set up to work out the details. The committee submitted its report last week.

The airline currently has 38 A-320s of which eight are on dry lease. IA had dry leased six A-320s last year, three of which will be inducted in the next two months. The last lease was to substitute the 20-year-old A 300s that were phased out by the airline.

IA has a fleet strength of 56 aircraft which will go up to 61 when the five leased aircraft are inducted.