Spicejet.qxd
9/25/2010
11:33 AM
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SPECIAL STORY
The
spice
story from Sun!
The SpiceJet story is all set to become spicier when it starts flying to foreign shores. R Krishnan reports on SpiceJet and Kalanithi Maran's ambitious plans to boost the Tamil ethnic network.
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piceJet is all set to make its foreign foray from October 7 when it will launch its New Delhi-Kathmandu flights and subsequently Chennai-Colombo. Bookings have commenced and inaugural fares are so low that it has upset full-service carriers competing on these sectors. Whether competition will intensify further on these routes especially Chennai-Colombo remains to be seen, but for SpiceJet’s new owner Kalanithi Maran it will all be part of the Tamil ethnic network. It needs to be mentioned here that the Sri Lankan official carrier has an Open Sky access to Indian cities. This was a deal done during the Vajpayee regime and merely formalised by the succeeding UPA-I. Around that time in 2005, Air Lanka was 49 per cent owned by Emirates. The island nation’s airline made the best of the Open Sky agreement by mounting
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Kalanithi Maran’s Colombo foray has unnerved Air India and partly Jet Airways too CRUISING HEIGHTS October 2010
dozens of frequencies to India. It deployed A330 to Delhi from Colombo, picked up passengers from other Indian cities as well and flew them from its home hub to Europe, mainly London. It also used to fly them to Dubai from where Emirates would fly passengers to its network destinations. However, Emirates sold back its 49 per cent holdings to the Sri Lankan government which today as a result holds 97 per cent in the airline and the balance three per cent are with its employees. A few weeks ago, the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa enquired from major aircraft manufacturers as well as airlines if they would like to recommend any strategic partner who could take 49 per cent holdings in the Air Lanka. And if a big carrier — whether East or West-based — does get in as a strategic partner then the economics of Indian carriers on the route could change. True,