According to official sources, the Kalanithi Maran owned carrier’s request is being studied; while some routes will be easily granted, others may involve new bilateral air services agreements with some countries.
Tashkent and Tehran are among the 10 new international destinations to which budget carrier SpiceJet wants to fly from next year.
According to official sources, the Kalanithi Maran owned carrier’s request is being studied; while some routes will be easily granted, others may involve new bilateral air services agreements with some countries.
“We will be initiating talks with Uzbekistan and Iran for an ASA in January next year, we want Indian carriers to fly to newer destinations. The remaining destinations which SpiceJet has sought are being considered,” the sources said. Other destinations sought include Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur besides Dubai, Muscat and Riyadh. The airline already connects Kathmandu and Colombo from Delhi and Chennai.
An analyst pointed out that SpiceJet appears to have done its homework in selecting those routes where either the demand is growing exponentially or there are no direct flights from India as of now. “An international flight costs anywhere between a quarter million to half a million dollars to fly, no doubt SpiceJet has done its homework before asking for new routes. They dont have long range aircraft so they seem to be opting for routes which have good traffic potential within short to medium haul range. Also, they have wisely avoided overcrowded sectors,” he said.
He pointed out that Tashkent has been attracting a lot of business traffic lately apart from leisure seekers; Tehran would give this airline traffic from construction workers.
Already, SpiceJet has announced plans to increase its Boeing aircraft fleet from 30 to 32 aircraft and by the end of next fiscal, it wants international business to account for 10-12% of its topline.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet’s successful home run continues. Maran has just announced plans to infuse Rs 130 crore into the company and these funds will be used to acquire six new Q400 aircraft, taking the total Q400 fleet to 9; this will go up to 11 by March next year. Maran’s decision to go in for fresh equity infusion will help the airline since the Rs 270 crore already raised from Canada’s export finance agency would have been insufficient to cover the entire cost of purchasing the Q400 aircraft fleet.
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