Wednesday, November 23 2005 15:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Indian Airlines (IA) plans to connect London as part of its global expansion plans and would lease 12 wide-bodied aircraft for long haul operations.

"London is on our plans", IA Commercial Director Anil Goyal told reporters when asked about new destinations the carrier was eyeing to start operations.

IA is planning to lease over 17 aircrafts over the next few months including 12 long haul aircrafts to bridge the demand gap till the acquisition of the new fleet of 43 aircraft later next year.

"We expect the delivery of our new fleet in September 2006 and for the interim period we plan to lease 12 Wide-Body-Long-Haul aircraft, five Airbus 319 and few more A320s over the next few months to meet the requirements," he said on the sidelines of a tie-up with Reliance Infocomm on m-ticket.

"While the A320s are expected to arrive on February next year onwards, the five A319s is expected to arrive next month to be in operations for domestic routes," he said

Goyal said the airline was also planning to lease six jets and turbo-propelled aircraft like ATRs as a part of its strategy to service regional routes with lower traffic density.

The 12 wide-bodied aircraft will also be leased soon to boost the international operations. Asked about the type of aircraft for the long-haul aircraft IA was looking at, he said

"We are looking at all the options and availability of the aircrafts, " he said.

IA currently has a fleet size of 65 aircraft.