Budget airline SpiceJet gets 'scheduled carrier' designation to operate flights from India to United States

On Thursday, budget carrier SpiceJet said it has been given the designation of  “Indian scheduled carrier” to operate flights to the United States. In a filing to BSE, senior vice president (Legal) and company secretary of SpiceJet Chandan Sand said that in terms of the Air Services Agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the United States of America, SpiceJet has been designated as Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed services between India and the USA. According to a report in Livemint, SpiceJet would be the first Indian budget carrier to operate services to the US. Currently, only the national carrier Air India is operating flights on India-US routes. A Moneycontrol report quoted SpiceJet chairman and managing director of Ajay Singh saying that the Indian scheduled carrier designation would help the company’s plan for international expansion in “much better and calibrated manner.” The report stated that this is the first time since Jet Airways was grounded in April 2019 that a private airline from India will be operating flights to the US. As per a report in  The Times of India,  SpiceJet, a low cost carrier (LCC), has for some time been considering wet leasing wide body aircraft for international flights. The report added that India has, so far, created  a travel bubble with US, France and Germany that allows movement of people, as per government norms, direct between both the countries. International commercial air passenger services have been suspended in India since 22 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only Air India flights were operating under the Vande Bharat Mission till 21 July to bring back Indians stranded in other parts of the world after the epidemic broke out.