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There is “no status change” in SpiceJet’s order for 42 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, according to Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India.
The debt-ridden airline had ordered the aircraft in 2012 during the Hyderabad air show with deliveries expected to begin in 2018. The order is worth $4.4 billion at list price.
On Thursday, SpiceJet reported a net loss of ₹275 crore during October-December 2014, higher than the net loss of ₹172 crore it had reported in the same period last year.
The Boeing 737 MAX is the latest aircraft from the US-based aircraft manufacturer. The aircraft, which is Boeing’s response to the Airbus’s A-320 New Engine Option or NEO, is scheduled to take its first flight in 2016 and its first delivery to a customer is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2017.
In response to a question that if India did not sign the deal for Chinook or Apache helicopters in the next 8-12 months then there could be a price escalation, Kumar said, he hoped the deal would be signed at the earliest.
“We have already been there for five years. There is a point beyond which our ability to hold price will just not be there. We are inching closer and closer to that point.” The deal valued at $2.5 billion has been in the making for close to five years. Addressing a press conference, ahead of the Bangalore air show, Kumar said as far as Boeing was concerned the race to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force “was over”.
In January 2012, French firm Dassault Aviation SA won the over $10-billion (₹50,000 crore) deal to supply 126 fighter jets to the Indian Air Force. The French company beat other contenders, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Cassadian (formerly EADS), Eurofighter, Russian MiG 35 and SAAB, to get the order. Though the decision was announced in 2012 the delivery of the fighters is yet to start. The Bangalore air show will be held from February 18 to February 22.
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