SpiceJet, India’s second-largest carrier, is set to start non-stop flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai from this December, becoming the first low-cost airline in the country to fly to the British capital.
London will be SpiceJet’s tenth international destination and the flights will operate under the air-bubble agreement between the India and the UK. Air bubble is essentially a reciprocal arrangement allowing people to travel freely between the two countries. India has implemented such air bubble arrangements with several countries, including Bhutan, UAE the UK, USA, Japan and Canada among others.
Earlier this year, Vistara, the full-service carrier by Tata and Singapore Airlines, debuted its long-haul operations starting flights to London from August 28. Air India has flights to multiple destinations from India to the UK.
SpiceJet will begin flights to London from December 4, 2020; there will be flights twice-a-week from Delhi and once-a-week from Mumbai. The airline will use a leased Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft for the flights to London; the twin-aisle aircraft will have a seating configuration of 353 economy seats and 18 business class seats.
The service to London is a step towards providing non-stop connectivity from India to different parts of the world, which has been a long cherished dream, said Ajay Singh, chairman and MD of SpiceJet.
“We have always had this dream of having our own international hubs in India and carrying our own passengers long-haul into Europe, into UK and into the United States. This is the first step towards that great objective. We have talked about it for years, but we think we can actually make it happen now, especially when these bubble arrangements are on,” he said.
The airline is offering all-inclusive introductory return promotional fare starting at Rs 53,555/- (£565) on both Delhi-London and Mumbai-London routes. The one-way starting fare will be Rs 25,555 (£270) on the Delhi-London route and Rs 29,555 (£312) on the Mumbai-London route.
SpiceJet had initially secured slots at the London Heathrow Airport from September 1 to October 23, 2020. These slots were later extended for the entire winter schedule.
SpiceJet has a fleet of 111 aircraft, including 74 Boeing 737s, 26 Bombardier Q-400s and 11 freighters.
Aviation industry around the world has been hit hard due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All flights in India were grounded when India imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 25 and domestic flights were allowed to resume gradually only from May 25.
While the number of passengers flying has continued to go up since then, Singh says a full recovery may be still some time away.
“It is tough to say that the worst is really behind us. We don’t know when the (COVID-19) vaccine is going to happen and going to be distributed. We can just carry on with the job that we have at hand and hope this is over soon. In our view, this is at least one year away. But, life will not come to a standstill for this period. I have flown to Mumbai three-times in the last three weeks and I see that confidence is returning,” he said.