Air One Aviation (Delhi International) is studying both Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and Boeing (BOE, Washington National) products ahead of its planned entry into the scheduled passenger market later next year. Managing director Alok Sharma told India's LiveMint newspaper that his carrier is on the hunt for USD2billion worth of jets.

“You can’t start with one plane and wait for another six months to get the next one,” Sharma said. “The launch will be decided by availability of aircraft in a contiguous manner.”

Having received its No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from Indian authorities in July, the carrier intends to operate in the full-service niche where it will go head-to-head with the likes of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International), Air India (AI, Delhi International), and Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) subsidiary, Vistara (UK, Delhi International). Incidentally, Sharma noted that Vistara had snapped up A320-200 (sl)s that Air One had initially eyed.

Once a deal has been reached, he added, Air One plans to induct six to seven aircraft every year. A decision on which routes the carrier will operate on has yet to be taken, Sharma ended.

Air One currently proffers a fleet of an E190 variant - the Lineage 1000 - along with two E135 variants - the ERJ Legacy 650 - and various helicopters to the local charter market.