SpiceJet which is hiking its fleet strength from the existing 15 to 34 by October 2009, has been deliberating on its plan to foray into some key ASEAN destinations by leveraging its major presence in the South, chief commercial officer of the low cost carrier(LCC) Samyukth Sridharan disclosed here on Monday.
“By October next, we’ll add up 10 new aircrafts, all Boeing 737-900, each having a capacity of 212 seats (as against 189 in 737-800). Our Board is meeting next week to finalise acquisition of another ten Boeings costing close to 450 million US dollars,” Mr Sridharan told reporters here.
The fleet expansion plan is part of SpiceJet’s strategy to connect potential Asean hubs.  “Our aim is to opt for destinations that can be connected through a four-hour direct flight from one of our bases in the South,” Mr Sridharan said.
When pointed out that  SpiceJet does not yet fulfil the civil aviation ministry’s norms of five years of existence and a fleet size of 20 to qualify to fly overseas, the CCO claimed that several international flights like Air Asia and Tiger that have begun touching India do not fulfil these conditions anyway.
“We hope these norms will be relaxed by the ministry to enable us to prepare the ground for overseas entry,” he said. “This apart, flying international routes is quite remunerative provided the routes are chosen intelligently.”
Talking about the plans to consolidate domestic operations, Mr Sridharan said while the carrier will introduce from October,  a direct flight from Kolkata to Bangalore and resume its direct flight between Kolkata and New Delhi, it plans to launch shortly a Kolkata- Port Blair flight.
The basic fare of the Kolkata-Bangalore-Kolkata flight will be Rs 2,094 plus taxes while the Port Blair flight is likely to cost around Rs 5,500 inclusive of taxes.
 “Our basic fare in the Kolkata-Delhi flight is Rs 2,724 which is the lowest in India,” he claimed.