GoAir, the budget airline from the Wadia stable, on Thursday received the first of its newly ordered Airbus A320 aircraft which will see increased frequencies to Bangalore besides five other cities.

GoAir boss Jeh Wadia, addressing a press conference in this regard, said the remaining 20 planes — ordered at $ 1.2 billion —would join the fleet over a period of 18 months but added that the carrier’s policy of flexible fleet management would continue.

Under its business plan, GoAir has been returning aircraft to the leasing company during the lean period and inducting them during the season. However, at any point of time, the airline would maintain a fleet of at least five aircraft, he added.

GoAir had recently came close to being taken off the “scheduled airline” list by the civil aviation ministry as for a few months it did not conform to the norm of maintaining a minimum fleet of five planes to be listed as a scheduled carrier to carry on commercial operations.

More flights to B’lore

Wadia said with the induction of the first purchased aircraft and the second which will land next month, the airline would increase frequencies to six cities including Bangalore.

The policy of the airline would continue to not open new stations but increase frequencies on the existing routes. It currently flies to 11 destinations.

Claiming that the load factor of GoAir was the best in the country at 80 per cent for the last eight months, Wadia said its on-time performance was 84 per cent within 30 minutes.

On the GoAir investments, he said the management has not yet taken any decision on the proposed 26 per cent offloading of the stake but added that at the moment it was only vetting the proposal.

Airbus vice president (sales-India) Miranda Mills said the A320 aircraft has 10 per cent more stowage space and a larger ceiling panel among its new features.