Thursday, August 18 2005 10:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Low-cost, no-frill carrier Air Deccan today said it would issue its Initial Public Offer (IPO) between November and January offering 20-25 per cent stake.

"We will go public between November this year and January next...Between 20 and 25 per cent of stake is likely to be diluted", the airline chief G R Gopinath said here.

Replying to questions, he said four merchant bankers would be appointed soon to take forward the IPO process. He made it clear that the merchant banks would be those "who are not associated with Jet Airways" as bankers during their IPO.

Gopinath said Air Deccan would be getting five more ATR turbo-prop aircraft and seven Airbus A-320s within the current fiscal. It would get another seven A-320s next year.

The airline's current fleet strength is 14 ATRs and five Airbus aircraft.

To questions on its demand for pilots, Gopinath said his airline would require 650 pilots in the next five to six years, half of whom would be commanders. These pilots would be in addition to the 200 Air Deccan already employs.

He said he was also looking for more slots in Delhi and Mumbai for the additional aircraft which would start arriving into the country in the next few weeks.