Comments
SpiceJet, which is to take delivery of its first MAX Boeing 737 aircraft later this year, could examine the possibility of launching a direct flight linking Delhi and Colombo, Ajay Singh, promoter, SpiceJet, told newspersons at Wings India 2018, the four-day airshow currently on in Hyderabad.
Singh said as the new aircraft has the potential to fly for one more hour than the existing aircraft in the airline’s fleet, it does open up the possibility of launching a Delhi-Colombo flight.
The airline has signed an agreement with Boeing for acquiring 40 Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft valued at $4.74 billion. The actual amount that SpiceJet will pay will be much lower as aircraft manufacturers are known to give heavy discounts for bulk sales.
The Boeing 737 MAX 10 is the largest member of the 737 MAX family which is capable of flying 370.4 km further than today’s Next Generation Boeing 737. It can carry 188 passengers in business and economy class seating and up to 230 passengers in a single class configuration.
“We are completely agnostic about the routes we fly. We want to fly profitable routes. And we don’t care whether they are domestic or international,” Singh said, adding that by inducting the new aircraft the airline’s cost of operations will go down. “The fuel cost goes down by 15 per cent while engineering and maintenance costs also reduce by 10-15 per cent per aircraft,” Singh said. The airline expects to induct around 15 MAX aircraft into its fleet.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet will start services from Delhi to Adampur and Kanpur by May this year, Singh said. These were the two routes that the airline won the rights to operate flights to under the government’s regional air connectivity scheme (RCS). However, it could not start the flights earlier as infrastructure in these cities was not ready.
The airline has also won the right to operate on 20 regional routes under the second round of bidding under RCS held recently. These flights will also be started soon, Singh said without getting into details as to when the airline plans to start these flights.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.