MUMBAI, May 26: No-frills airline SpiceJet Sunday
announced the induction of a Boeing 737, taking its fleet size
to 100 aircraft.
SpiceJet is the fourth domestic airline to achieve the
feat after national carrier Air India, now defunct Jet Airways
and rival IndiGo.
Eight domestic carriers – Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet,
GoAir, Air India Express, Vistara, AirAsia and Alliance
together have 595 planes in their fleet at the moment.
Spicejet in a release said it has added some 23 planes
in the last one month alone.
“Who could have thought that from the brink of closure
in December 2014, SpiceJet would have a 100-aircraft fleet in
2019,” SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said
on the induction of 100th plane in the fleet.
The Gurugram-based budget carrier now has 68 Boeing
737s, 30 Bombardier Q-400s and two B737 freighters.
The airline at present operates 575 daily flights on
an average to 62 destinations 53 domestic and nine
international, it said.
SpiceJet is a key player in the Union government’s
regional connectivity scheme UDAN operating 42 flights per day
to and from various regional destinations, it added.
“SpiceJet has added 23 planes and over a hundred new
flights, most of them connecting the key metros of Mumbai and
Delhi, in just over a month’s time,” the airline said.
Of the 595 planes, IndiGo has 230, Air India 128 and
SpiceJet 100.
Jet Airways, which ceased operations around mid-last
month, had 120 planes in its fleet before going bust.
Besides, GoAir has 49 planes, Air India Express 25,
Vistara 22 snd AirAsia India 21 planes in their fleet.
Alliance Air, which is the regional subsidiary of Air
India, has 20 ATRs for operations.
SpiceJet had placed a USD 22 billion order for 205
aircraft with Boeing in 2015 and had followed it up with a USD
1.7 billion order for 50 Bombardier Q400 planes. (PTI)