SpiceJet announces plans to go international

Mumbai: Low- cost carrier, SpiceJet, is the latest to announce its intentions to go international, subject to government approvals. A prominent stakeholder in the domestic LCC has said that SpiceJet could start international operations as early as January 2008. His comments come on the back of sympathetic noises by the government regarding a likely change in the rules and regulations that determine how and when a domestic carrier can start international operations.

Vijay Mallya, chairman of Kingfisher Airlines, has also run a strong campaign asking the government to change its rules, given the conditions prevailing in the aviation industry today.

Currently, among the private players, only Jet Airways and Sahara have the permission to fly overseas.

Khaled Al Kamda, vice chairman of Istithmar, a UAE-based private equity group, which holds 22% stake in SpiceJet, made the comments, regarding SpiceJet's intentions, to a national daily.

According to the current regulations, a domestic private airline can only ply international routes if it has been operational for five years, which ties down SpiceJet, which has begun operations only in 2005. However, the government has said recently that this time-bound regulation is being reviewed and that it would consider applications from private carriers on a case-to-case basis.

Al Kamda said that SpiceJet was seriously looking at the lucrative Gulf sector. Currently only Air Arabia offers budget fares to the Middle East. According to Al Kamda, SpiceJet will follow the Air Asia model, which operates to 75 destinations world wide, on a low-cost basis.

According to industry analysts, if SpiceJet were to be permitted to operate on international routes, it was likely to give strong competition to all the existing players, as there were very few low-cost airlines that connect Indian cities to the rest of the world.

SpiceJet is slated to have a fleet of 26 aircraft by 2008 - up from the current strength of 13.