Aside from Air India, SpiceJet is the only other carrier allowed to operate flights to and from US

• SpiceJet shares climbed over 5% after it was designated as Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed routes between India and the United States.
• SpiceJet will be the first private carrier to operate a long haul flight to the US after Jet Airways ceased operation.
• “This designation would help us plan for our international expansion in a much better and calibrated manner,” Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet said in a statement.

The shares of India’s largest cargo operator, SpiceJet climbed over 5% after the company told stock-exchanges that it has been designated as Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed routes between India and the United States.

This will be the first time SpiceJet will be operating a long haul flight to the US. After Jet Airways ceased operation in 2019, Air India was the only Indian carrier to operate between India and the US— which it even continued during the lockdown through Vande Bharat Mission (VBM).

“This designation would help us plan for our international expansion in a much better and calibrated manner,” Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet said in a statement.

This is the beginning of the gradual resumption of international routes four months after the government suspended international commercial air passenger services on March 22, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

It came after civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri earlier last week said that India has established individual bilateral bubbles with the US that will allow airlines of each country in the pact to operate international flights. An air bubble is a bilateral arrangement with a set of regulations and restrictions in which the carriers of the two countries can operate international flights.

Puzzle of aircraft?

While it is still unclear which SpiceJet aircraft will be used for operating flights to the US. The company currently has single-aisle narrow-body aircraft for its domestic operations, which it also uses to conduct international operations to the gulf countries under VBM. However, for operations to the US, it would need wide-body aircraft with bigger fuel tanks that allow the airline to operate long haul flights.

According to reports, the airline has taken an A330 aircraft from Oman airlines on wet-lease, but it has yet not declared if it will be using the same aircraft to fly to the US.

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