Flight International – 11 June 2019

AIR TRANSPORT

12 | Flight International | 11-17 June 2019 flightglobal.com

I

ndian low-cost carrier SpiceJet

has been working at full tilt to fill

the gap left in the market by the 17

April collapse of rival Jet Airways.

SpiceJet managing director

Ajay Singh says it has been

adding aircraft to its fleet at an

average of one every 24h over

the last 25 days – mostly Boeing

737NGs that were previously

operated by Jet.

“The last two months or so has

been all about trying to get as

many of their planes as possible,

trying to get as many of Jet’s peo-

ple to help operate those planes,

get their slots and their routes

and try and fly some of those

routes,” he says.

“It’s been frantic growth, but I

am happy to say it has been pret-

ty well organised. There haven’t

been any major glitches.”

While India has seen previous

airline collapses, Singh says the

operation to induct aircraft from

Jet was unique, requiring careful

co-ordination with the govern-

ment and regulators.

In addition, SpiceJet has hired

around 1,000 former Jet employ-

ees, and is planning to take on

another 2,000.

Operating the former Jet fleet

has seen the airline step up and

offer “SpiceBiz” – a rare foray

into premium accommodation –

as it did not have time to recon-

figure the aircraft.

Singh is non-committal about

retaining the business-class prod-

uct in future, noting that “our

DNA is to fly dense aircraft.”

The additional 737NGs were

not only required to fill the space

left by Jet’s demise, but also back-

fill capacity lost from the ground-

ing of its 13 737 Max 8s, which

has knocked plans to grow Spice-

Jet’s international network.

Still, the carrier has been able

to launch a number of new

international routes from

Mumbai that were previously

operated by Jet, mostly to desti-

nations in the Middle Eastern

and Indian subcontinent.

The expansion has also raised

the prospect of SpiceJet’s entering

the widebody, long-haul market.

Singh says the airline is consider-

ing this, but will not be rushed.

“We’ll do it only if we are con-

vinced it will work,” he says. ■

A

irbus sees a great opportuni-

ty for sales of the A220 into

China, but it must first complete

certification of the twinjet with

the country’s authorities.

Speaking at the IATA AGM in

Seoul, Airbus chief commercial

officer Christian Scherer said

that the A220, which is the

former Bombardier CSeries pro-

gramme bought by Airbus last

year, has not been certificated by

Beijing and he is unclear when

the process will be undertaken.

As a result, Scherer says: “We

haven’t even begun marketing

the aircraft in China.”

However, Scherer is optimistic

that the acquisition of the pro-

gramme by Airbus can clear the

way for the A220 to begin the

certification process with support

from the European Union Avia-

tion Safety Agency (EASA).

“Even though this is a Trans-

port Canada aircraft, now it is an

Airbus programme we hope that

we can accelerate the certification

which was previously blocked be-

cause China and Europe were ne-

FLEET ELLIS TAYLOR SEOUL

Jet’s demise sees SpiceJet running hot

Low-cost carrier inducting collapsed rival’s aircraft into fleet at “frantic” pace, as it launches new international routes

OUTLOOK MAX KINGSLEY-JONES SEOUL

A220 marketing push awaits Chinese certification

ORDER EDWARD RUSSELL WASHINGTON DC

EgyptAir delays confirmation of options

EgyptAir has postponed a deci-

sion on firming 12 options for

Airbus A220-300s until 2020, says

the carrier’s vice-chairman and

captain Mohamed Raafat Elyan.

The Cairo-based carrier had

planned to make a decision on

the options early this year, but

Elyan now says the airline will

wait until deliveries of its firm

orders for both A220-300s and

A320neos begin in 2020.

“We don’t have a full view of

our [fleet] plans yet,” he adds.

Elyan made his comments at

an event marking the launch of

EgyptAir’s new service to

Washington Dulles on 4 June.

EgyptAir has orders for 12

A220-300s and 15 A320neos,

Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer shows.

A request for proposals for

additional aircraft, which

EgyptAir Group chief executive

Ahmed Adel told FlightGlobal in

November was due in 2019,

likely will not occur until the fol-

lowing year, says Elyan. ■

Airline has been working to fill market gap through rapid expansion

AirTeamImages

gotiating the bilateral aviation

safety agreement – a roadmap

towards mutual recognition of bi-

lateral certification,” says Scherer.

“That’s now behind us so we

believe the Chinese authority is

now open for business on new

aircraft certification and, with

EASA’s backing, I hope, we can

certificate this airplane.”

Scherer says he does not have

any firm schedule for when the

process would start, but says the

time it would require to be com-

pleted “in terms of time and

scope would be a year or less”. ■

Airbus is optimistic it can accelerate authority’s approval processes

Airbus