“Our customers can expect many more flights and many more exciting offers in the coming months”, said Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet. While the airline did not mention which Gulf aviation companies were keen on buying into SpiceJet, the company’s chairman Ajay Singh said that they were not looking to dilute stake at this time. “There is some ongoing dialogue and we continue to explore other types of relationships”, he added.
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Two leading Gulf airlines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways both have bought stakes in multiple airlines to expand their operations, routes and fleet.
In 2013, reports in India claimed Dubai’s Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways and Kuwait Airways had all held talks with SpiceJet about a possible stake sale.
“We’re looking at both Airbus and Boeing. The Indian aviation market is a big cake and Etihad had got a piece, but at least three quarters of the cake is still there, uneaten”, he told Business Line. The Budget airline is in the process of placing a large aircraft order.
SpiceJet is planning to order more than 150 planes in the current financial year. The (Boeing 737) Max aircraft as well as the (Airbus A320) Neo.
There is a higher possibility that order will be placed with a single manufacturer and Singh refrained from giving more financial details pertaining to this deal as discussions were still in progress.
Dilution of equity is not an option as the company has sufficient money to pay for the procurement of planes and it has the option to choose from “various forms of credit financing”.
The airline plans to start flights to Hyderabad and Jaipur from Dubai, with the aim to increase frequency of flights to existing destinations, he told reporters.
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“The company is now searching in balanced design”, Sigh included.
