Business
Big budget
Seeking to power its future growth, the Wadia Group’s budget airline GoAir has placed a billion-dollar order with Pratt and Whitney for 144 new Pure Power PW1100JM engines. "We selected the Pratt and Whitney engine because we are confident that it will deliver significant savings in operating costs, as well as considerable reductions in emission and noise,” the airline’s managing director Jeh Wadia told the media in mid February.
Jeh Wadia
The engines will be fitted to the 72 Airbus 320 NEO aircraft that Go Air had ordered last June in a deal worth $ 7.2 billion. Induction of the new planes into the fleet will begin in 2015. "Purely on direct operating cost, we are expecting about 15 percent savings on fuel costs by mounting the Pure Power engine and this has been the main reason for signing the deal, apart from good maintenance, repair and overhaul package,” Wadia added. GoAir is expected to fund the engine costs through a combination of debt and equity. GoAir has remained airborne despite the air pockets of the Indian aviation sector! "We ended financial year (FY) 11 on a profitable note and we would have been very profitable in FY 12 but for the high fuel costs and a depreciating rupee,” Wadia stated.
Developing a project: Wadia Group’s Island City Center
Luxurious lifestyle
Bombay Realty, the real estate arm of the Wadia Group, is developing a fully integrated ‘mixed use’ project called the Island City Center located in the heart of Bombay. With luxury residences, serviced apartments, a five-star hotel, a high street, a premium mall and a school, the project will encompass the new age mantra of urban lifestyle — live, work, play, all at one place, reducing the hassle of long commutes. "At the Island City Center, we don’t sell property, we will be selling time and with it a better life,” stated Bombay Realty managing director Jeh Wadia. The city within a city will be a gated community, with its own private roads, security and world class infrastructure, he elaborated. The Group reportedly has a land bank of 10,000 acres in India, with around 700 acres in mainland Bombay and 70 acres in the island city (45 acres in Dadar and 25 acres in Worli). A 41-storeyed tower called Springs is ready at their Spring Mills location at Dadar.
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From the archive