SpiceJet has been making multiple announcements over the last few weeks. The airline intends to add up to 20 aircraft as wet/damp leases this winter, which will effectively double up its operations. The fund infusion of INR 3000 crore last financial year was supposed to help the airline speed up the ungrounding and expand fleet, but clearly that has not happened.
The airline recently inducted one A340-300 belonging to Legend Airways, a Romanian flagged aircraft. SpiceJet will start deploying this aircraft on flights between Delhi and Bangkok starting today and will continue to deploy until November 05, 2025.
SG87 DEL2055 – 0300(+1)BKK
SG88 BKK0500 – 0755DEL
The aircraft is configured with 324 seats in all economy configuration in standard 2-4-2, eight abrest seating of the A340s. The A340s are rare with only a handful of airlines still using these aircraft, often referred to as the gas guzzler. The A340 was manufactured between 1991 and 2012, with 380 aircraft being built and 377 delivered to airlines. Out of these 218 were the -300s, one of which is now with SpiceJet on damp lease. YR-LRE, the aircraft in question is 17.3 years old having started its journey with Finnair, and three prior stints with SpiceJet.
The increase in capacity for a short period would help cater to the Diwali holidays crowd and the capacity increase at a short notice is easy to absord in a market which has relative ease of visa resulations for Indians.
Where does the A340-300 head to post November 05? The airline already has slots at Birmingham for flights from Amritsar, will it or won’t it fly that route where it will go head on with Air India which will operate thrice a week service this winter.
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