As part of its celebrations of completing two years, the carrier would offer two lakhs seats at the price of Rs0.99 for two or more persons travelling together.
NEW DELHI: Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday said it is likely to break even in the April-June quarter this fiscal and make profit besides targeting to double its growth to six million passengers next year.
"We expect to break even in the first quarter of the current fiscal in the overall cost and even make profit. We are ferrying three million passengers this year and aim to double it to six million by next year," SpiceJet Chief Executive Officer Siddhanta Sharma said.
Ruling out any further dilution of company equity in the carrier, he pointed out that if SpiceJet managed to break-even and register profit, it would be the first of the new entrants in the domestic aviation sector to achieve this feat.
As part of its celebrations for completing two years of operations, the carrier would offer two lakhs seats at a special price of 99 paise for two or more persons travelling together, beginning today till June 6 on all its non-stop flights covering 14 destinations.
"We expect to be greatly profitable once the yields hardened," Sharma said and pointed out that the fact that the carrier could break even suggests that it was close to making profits.
Sharma also said SpiceJet intends to add eight more aircraft by March next year for which the funding mechanism has been put in place. "Funding is no problem. In the United States banks give loans to those airlines which have flown for only three years. We would raise loans based on our need," SpiceJet Managing Director Ajay Singh said.
Singh said SpiceJet was not contemplating to hedge money from global commodity markets to buy Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) as the price of fuel was high.
"Hedging in future could be good. We are studying the different implications of hedging. We are talking to our consultants and would decide on the same on receiving their suggestions," Singh reasoned.
Singh said SpiceJet's market share was 7.5 per cent and it was aiming to ensure a steady growth and was not keen to increase destinations too much but add more frequencies to its existing routes.
"Last year, our flights were 95 per cent full. The company wants larger aircraft which could fly for about five hours. The 900 Extended Range aircraft could be used for the purpose."
Five such aircraft would be introduced this year, which would further reduce the operational costs of the carrier.
He said despite having the largest market share, Air Deccan sustained a loss of Rs 213 crore because of adding more destinations, allowing tickets through travel agents besides touching more airports.
SpiceJet has lowered its cost by sticking to single aircraft model, internet booking and flying on selected routes.
Sharma said under the Tata AIG insurance scheme, the passengers would pay only Rs 129 and avail a host of benefits including claiming money for flight delays which is a unique proposal of its kind brought by any airline in the country.
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