The first Bombardier turbo-prop Q400 aircraft to fly the Indian skies will land at the Shamshabad airport here in June, flying the colours and brand of SpiceJet, the low-cost carrier, said the airline's CEO Neil Mills.
He was addressing a press conference after signing an agreement marking the selection of the GMR Hyderabad Rajeev Gandhi International Airport as the first hub for SpiceJet's new fleet of 15 Bombardier Q400, 78-seater aircraft.
Replying to a question, he said the first Q400 would touch down here in June and the last in the initial order would land here in July next. Based on the performance, logistics and profitability, a fresh order of 15 more such aircraft would be placed with the aircraft manufacturer, he said, explaining that the plane was just right given the available infrastructure in the country's Tier 2 ad Tier 3 cities. The new fleet would connect destinations like Aurangabad, Bhubaneswar, Goa, Indore, Madurai, Mangalore, Nashik, Tirupati, Rajahmundry and Vijayawada, to name a few.
SpiceJet has 300 pilots on its rolls and will hire 150 more to handle its new operations in the next 12 months. It now operates 186 flights daily to 20 Indian cities with a fleet of 28 Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft.
The Bombardier could land anywhere which the Boeing could not, said SpiceJet Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan, adding that it could touch down at over 300 of the 432 airports across India that had concrete runway lengths of 1,000 metres and above. The short take-off and landing capability of the turbo-prop aircraft was ideal for the airline's operational plans, he said.
GMR Hyderabad Rajeev Gandhi International Airport CEO Vikram R. Jaisinghani said the region had the potential to serve 70 million passengers. Hyderabad airport, which has a capacity to serve 12 million annually and could be expanded to handle about 40 million passengers, was ideally placed to take care of much higher volumes, he said. Bombardier Vice-President (Sales-Asia Pacific) Trung Ngo said the company was considering putting up a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to service its Q-400 aircraft.
