With Boeing-Airbus contest, SpiceJet shows long-haul intent

They need to come up with proposals to minimise costs

Budget airline SpiceJet has begun an order contest between Boeing and Airbus for wide-body aircraft, in the strongest indication yet that it will go ahead with a move into discount long-distance flights. The stock rose to their highest ever.

The carrier is evaluating the US manufacturer’s biggest 787-10 Dreamliner together with Airbus’s A350-1000, Ajay Singh, SpiceJet chairman, told Bloomberg TV in London on Thursday.

SpiceJet is considering the introduction of flights to more distant markets, including Europe, but needs Boeing and Airbus to come up with proposals to minimise costs, Singh said in an interview at the 2017 Aviation Festival. The carrier’s jetliner order book is limited to 175 Boeing 737 narrow-body planes.

Carriers in India, including market leader IndiGo, are set to order more than 1,000 planes as they look to tap an emerging middle class with enough disposable income to fly for the first time, according to Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation. However, that could include “only a limited number” of wide-body and regional aircraft, according to the study done in May.

India has the potential to be a “tremendous” long-haul market, “if you can work out the math and bring down the cost,” Singh said. While the nation of 1.3 billion people is the world’s fastest growing aviation market, expanding at a 20 per cent annual clip, it also remains “incredibly price sensitive,” he said.