SpiceJet to expand fleet size; to place order for over 100 aircrafts in 2-3 months

SpiceJet Ltd hopes to place an order for more than 100 single-aisle planes in the next two to three months, its chairman said, as the country’s fourth-biggest airline by passenger market share reported a surge in quarterly profit. SpiceJet disclosed plans in November to buy more than 150 planes and that it was in talks with both Boeing and Airbus. Its current fleet is mostly Boeing planes.  Ajay Singh, who last year took over the airline, rescuing it from the brink of collapse, told a news conference on Thursday that operations had stabilised and the carrier was cleaning up legacy issues. Talks are also continuing with small aircraft makers to potentially add to its fleet of 14 Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes, Singh said. He had said in November that SpiceJet was in talks with Bombardier, France’s ATR - a joint venture between Airbus and Finmeccanica - and Brazil’s Embraer for 50 more smaller planes. India’s highly-competitive airline sector has benefited from lower fuel prices and growing passenger numbers. SpiceJet’s net profit more than tripled to Rs 73 crore for the three months to March 31, from Rs 22.5 a year earlier, it said in a statement. The results included one-time gains of about Rs 63.7 crore, and also one-time expenses of Rs 173 crore towards “stabilising and improving the reliability of its fleet”, the airline said.