SpiceJet could well be India’s first low-cost long-haul carrier. With the airline in a comfortable financial position, it is looking for avenues to make profits. Ajay Singh, the CEO of the airline, feels India has potential for low-cost, long-haul flying with so many Indians willing to explore international destinations.
Singh said it is an idea which is in its infancy and a lot of groundwork has to be done before the final leap is taken which includes acquiring planes, setting up simulator facilities, and then deciding which international routes it can operate profitably.
“Firstly narrow body aircraft give us another hour of flying and this opens up several new destinations for us to explore,” said Singh. He said there are also models where people have attempted low-cost, long-haul flying using wide-body aircraft. There are three successful low-cost, long-haul airlines worldwide. They are Scoot, Jetstar and Norwegian Air and are all said to be profitable.
“We feel that with a market as large as India where there is a such a large population and there is increase in disposable income, there is little reason why people will not want to travel to different parts of the world provided that the cost of travel is affordable,” said Singh. He said if a low-cost, long-haul model that works is found, Spicejet will certainly explore it.
SpiceJet has ordered 155 Boeing 737 Maxes. The airline will start inducting this fourth generation of the 737 family from 2018.
“We were focused on this order of Boeing 737 Max. We were in talks with Bombardier, ATR, Embraer. But we put that aside. We will look at the regional market. Government has this Regional Connectivity Scheme. But it is a relatively smaller piece of market,” said Singh.
The task cut out for Singh is to plan its fleet of aircraft in such a way that the average lease rentals go down. “As new models come, older models become less expensive. We are going to add aircraft in 2017 as well,” said Singh.
K R Krishnan, senior vice-president of Nivalink, a travel consultancy firm, said for long haul flights wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing 777s and 787s are suitable. "In a five-hour flight, only destinations like Singapore, Bangkok, Colombo and Male can be covered," said Krishnan.