Spicejet - Spreading Wings

SpiceJet Hoping For Break Even This Year

Low-cost airline, SpiceJet, is hoping to break even this year projecting revenues worth Rs 1,100 crore during the current financial year. Last year, the company’s revenues stood at Rs 481 crore. Sanjay Kumar, vice-president - sales and planning, said the company had already achieved operational break even last year and would be in a position to make profits this year if the ATF and aircraft parking charges remain constant. The increase in fleet size from four aircraft per month to over eight aircraft per month is one of the main factors expected to push up the revenue by more than 100 per cent this year, Kumar said.

A record 3 million passengers have flown with the airline since 18 months of its inception. One more aircraft would be added to its fleet from this April, taking the total number of aircraft to 11. It will be the second aircraft to be based at Hyderabad, further increasing the frequency to 12 flights from the present 9 flights a day from here, he said.

The airline would also be commencing its Jaipur-Ahmedabad flight connecting the city during the same month. In April, Hyderabad would become the company’s second largest base for flight operation after Delhi. Kumar said the company’s fleet size would increase to 17 aircraft by the end of this year, of which two would be again positioned at Hyderabad. The airline is also planning to introduce new services to Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi soon.

The new flight services from other places in the pipeline include the Indore-Nagpur service, he said. According to Kumar, the company has been operating their flights at 86 per cent load factor throughout the year, compared with the industry average of 65 per cent.