SpiceJet plans to add eight more planes from Jet’s grounded fleet

SpiceJet Ltd, which added its 100th aircraft in May, has inducted 22 Boeing planes that were withdrawn from grounded airline Jet Airways (India) Ltd’s fleet by lessors, and plans to add eight more such planes in the next two weeks, a top company official said.

“In the next fortnight, we expect to add another eight Boeing 737 (Next Generation) NG which were being operated by Jet Airways,” Kiran Koteshwar, chief financial officer (CFO) of SpiceJet, said in an interview. “We didn’t incur any additional capex on these aircraft.”

The 30 Boeing 737 NG planes that were earlier operated by Jet Airways are being added to SpiceJet’s fleet on short-term leases, with a maximum lease tenure of 24 months, Koteshwar said.