NEW DELHI: A week after announcing it is dry leasing 16 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, budget carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday announced adding five 90-seater Q400 aircraft, taking its Bombardier fleet size to 32.
Three of these planes will join SpiceJet’s fleet in the next ten days while the remaining two will be inducted by June, the carrier said.
The new inductions are expected to boost SpiceJet's regional connectivity as the airline operates the highest number of flights under the government's UDAN scheme.
“SpiceJet is the country’s largest regional operator and has been the most enthusiastic supporter of the government’s UDAN scheme. The airline recently launched 14 new flights under the regional connectivity scheme. With these 14 additions, SpiceJet now operates 33 daily flights under UDAN,” the Gurugram based airline said. Spicejet had yesterday announced a slew of international flights from Mumbai.
The move to induct new planes comes at a time when total seats offered by the civil aviation industry has come down significantly as Jet Airways, a leading full-service carrier, is operating only 6-7aircrafts as against its original fleet of 119 over financial issues.
Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, “The sudden reduction of aviation capacity should in no way hamper air connectivity to the smaller towns and cities of India and as the country’s largest regional operator, SpiceJet will make all possible efforts in this direction.”
The 90-seater variant is part of SpiceJet’s second purchase order for up to 50 Q400 turboprops placed in September 2017. This was the largest ever single order for the Q400 turboprop aircraft program valued at up to US $1.7 billion.
The airline has already inducted five planes as part of this order. SpiceJet also operates a 78-seater variant of the same aircraft. Besides the Q400 fleet, SpiceJet has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737s and one B737 freighter.