Domestic airline SpiceJet is in talks with Airbus to buy the latter's wide-bodied A330neo aircraft, The Economic Times reported.
Six top executives of Airbus flew down to Delhi earlier this month to meet SpiceJet's senior management, led by Chairman Ajay Singh. This was reportedly the second such meeting.
The airline has been considering buying wide-bodied aircraft for some time now with an eye towards starting long-haul operations.
While there has been no confirmation on SpiceJet's plan to start long-haul operations as yet, the move indicative of the airline firming up plans to fly to international destinations such as Europe.
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The report did not specify the number of A330neo planes SpiceJet is considering to buy. The A330neo, priced at $260 million, can have close to 300 seats in a two-class — economy and business — configuration.
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As of now, SpiceJet has 36 Boeing 737 planes and 22 Bombardier Q400 jets in its fleet. It has a pending order of 155 Boeing 737 Maxes and 24 Q400s. The first lot of the 737 Maxes is scheduled to arrive later this week.
The airline has purchase rights for another 50 Boeing aircraft, all of which it can upgrade to the wide-bodied Boeing 787 Dreamliner to take on A330s. It also has an option to buy another 25 Q400s from Bombardier.
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There is a need for SpiceJet to add capacity on domestic and international routes. Its passenger volumes for August increased by just 3 percent on year, according to the Director General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA's) latest monthly passenger traffic data.
In comparison, the airline's peers IndiGo and GoAir witnessed a monthly passenger traffic growth of 29 percent and 30 percent, respectively, for the same period.
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