Low-cost carrier SpiceJet made an announcement on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, that they will add five 90-seater Bombardier Q400s to their regional jet fleet. This takes the aircraft number to 32.
According to officials of the budget carrier, three of these planes would join its fleet in the next 10 days and the remaining two would be inducted by June. This information was made public through an official statement by SpiceJet.
With this move, the airline aims at increasing its domestic market capacity. The Jet Airways crisis also gives them more scope to increase flights in routes and also to take up new routes. The increase in the number of new aircrafts helps enhance this prospect.
“As part of our efforts to augment capacity and minimise passenger inconvenience, SpiceJet will induct five more Q400s in addition to the 16 B737s we announced last week,” SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh said.
He further stated that 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 efforts in this direction.
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The 90-seater variant is part of SpiceJet’s second purchase order for up to 50 Q400 turboprops placed in September 2017 worth $1.7 billion. Spicejet has already inducted five planes as part of this order. It also operates a 78-seater variant of the same aircraft.
SpiceJet operates 516 average daily flights to 60 destinations, including 51 domestic and 9 international ones. The airline has a fleet of 48 Boeing 737, 27 Bombardier Q-400s and one B737 freighter.