SpiceJet plans to place order for 100-150 planes • During the winter schedule, the airline looks to operate 291 flights

After posting profits in the first two quarters of the current fiscal, SpiceJet plans to order 100-150 aircraft and is in talks with the major aircraft manufacturers for the same.

During the winter schedule the airline will look to operate 291 flights across the country in order to rope in tourists who look to travel during the winter months.

In order to consolidate its operations and expand at the same time, the airline is looking to buy both big and narrow bodied airlines, so that it can operate in smaller airports in the tier III and tier IV towns.

“We are in talks with manufacturers for an order of 100-150 aircraft of large and small aircraft. The order is likely to be finalized early next year,” said Shilpi Gupta, senior vice-president, commercial, SpiceJet.

After facing rough times in December 2014 when it had reached the brink of closure the airline was forced to cut down on the routes it used to operate.

In order to revive the company’s fortunes, the team under the airlines’ promoter and CEO, Ajay Singh focused on two of the most crucial aspects of running an airline i.e, improved ground operations and higher utilization of aircraft.

Since August the aircraft utilization stands at 13 hours which is higher than most of its peers in the domestic aviation sector. Rohit pal Singh, senior general manager, SpiceJet, said that the Q-400 Bombardier aircraft which have been serviced earlier this year has resulted in enhancing the speed at which the aircraft travels without increasing the fuel consumption. It helped the company cut down on its fuel cost and improve revenues.

As a result, the 14 Bombardier aircraft that SpiceJet operates can now make more number of trips in a particular day. These aircraft also have 18 minutes turnaround time which is lesser than other type of aircraft.

“As a team we have worked on our ground operations and engineering in order to keep our flights on time. Hence we have the best On Time Performance (OTP) in the Mumbai airport where we faced a lot of problems pertaining to operations during December,” added Rohit Pal Singh.

According to the data available with Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), SpiceJet’s passenger load factor (PLF) stood at 92% in October while the while the market share improved to 12.8%. The low cost airline also carried 8.99 lakh passengers during the month.

In the second quarter of the current fiscal the airline made a profit of R23.77 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal compared to a loss of Rs 310.44 crore in the corresponding period.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com