SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) is planning to set up its first international base at Dubai World Central airline Chairman and Managing Director, Ajay Singh, has told Gulf News. Though the Indian LCC currently serves Dubai International, Singh said the airfield was not a good longterm prospect given rising congestion there.
“They have a fantastic new airport coming up with a lot capacity and I think they will see, if they allow this to happen, there will be much better utilisation of that capacity,” he said. “We want to build this city (Dubai) into our main international hub going.”
While intergovernmental talks concerning the Dubai base are underway, SpiceJet will seek to increase existing daily services to the Emirati hub from the current eight cities - Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Delhi International, Kochi International, Kozhikode, Madurai, Mumbai International, and Pune - to fifteen.
Once its UAE base is operational, Singh said SpiceJet would then look to start operating 7th Freedom flights to other countries aside from India.
Though teetering on the brink of bankruptcy earlier in the year, a resurgent SpiceJet has returned to form under new owner and original founder Ajay Singh. Currently, the LCC's in-house fleet consists of two B737-700s, sixteen B737-800s, four B737-900(ER)s, and fourteen Dash 8-400s along with a leased fleet of one A319-100, one A320-200, and three B737-800s. It currently serves forty destinations across India, the UAE, Oman, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Maldives.
flydubai (FZ, Dubai International) has meanwhile denied media reports that it would be in talks with SpiceJet regarding a potential partnership given the latter's Dubai expansion plans.
