SpiceJet in fleet acquisition talks

Spicejet will finalise its fleet expansion order in the next three months, said Neil Mills, the the airline's chief executive officer.

Mills said that the airline was in talks with both Airbus and Boeing and is evaluating fuel-efficient variants of narrow-bodied planes from both companies.

Mills said, "We are looking at the fleet for the long term. We are evaluating both the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus 320neo."

He refused to give details of the order size but said it wouldn't be a big order. Currently, SpiceJet has 36 Boeing 737s and 12 Bombardier aircraft.

By 2016, Mills expects the airline to have 50 Boeing-737s and 30 Bomardiers.

SpiceJet is inducting three Bombardiers in December this year.

The airline still has the option to induct 15 Bombardiers within the next year-and-a-half.

Last week, a Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation report said that Spicejet was understood to be in talks with Boeing to buy 30 to 40 737 MAX aircraft.

Mills refused to comment on the matter.

Mills expects that around 15 per cent of the airline's capacity would be deployed on international routes in the next two-three years.

SpiceJet would be flying to Guangzhou and Riyadh from Delhi in December, 2013, and would start another operating on another route from Trivandrum to Male.

Mills said, "By the end of this financial year, six to seven per cent of the capacity will be deployed on international routes."