In an interesting development, India’s domestic carrier SpiceJet has taken an early lead among other private airlines to restart international operations, after getting designated as a scheduled airline to operate on agreed routes between India and the United States. SpiceJet will operate on the India-US route as per terms of Air Services Agreement between the two countries.
“This designation would help us plan for our international expansion in a much better and calibrated manner,” Ajay Singh, chairman & managing director of SpiceJet said in a statement.
Till now, Air India was the only local carrier to operate between India and the U.S., through the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian citizens. In fact, this will be the first time after Jet Airways got grounded in April 2019, that a private airline from India will operate flights to the U.S.
It is yet unclear which aircraft SpiceJet will use to fly long haul to the U.S as it will need a wide-body aircraft. Until Covid-19 struck, the airline was operating to short-haul International destinations in the Middle East and South East Asia only. Though SpiceJet had taken an A330 aircraft from Oman on wet-lease, it is not clear if it will use this plane to fly to the U.S.
Among other Indian airlines, IndiGo is expected to soon join these airlines, with the country’s largest airline also getting wide-body aircraft on wet lease. Vistara, which already has a Boeing 787-9 in its fleet, is also looking to start flights to Europe and the US.
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