Two years ago, SpiceJetBSE -1.59 % Ltd. was fighting for survival as creditors retreated and oil companies refused to refuel its airliners.Today , the world’s biggest planemakers are wooing the recovering Indian budget carrier for a potential blockbuster order worth about $12 billion.
Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE are locked in a battle to supply SpiceJet with as many as 100 planes, and both are offering aggressive discounts in negotiations that have intensified in the past few months, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.
A win would be key for Boeing, with the U.S. manufacturer lagging behind its Euro pean rival in India’s burgeoning budgetairline market, one of the key sources of industry growth globally . Segment leader IndiGo and the local units of Singapore Airlines Ltd. and AirAsia Bhd., which fly only Airbus jets, have squeezed Boeing’s prospects in a market where air travel is growing at a pace faster than in China or the U.S. “Losing SpiceJet would be a big blow to Boeing,” said Amber Dubey, a New Delhibased consultant heading aerospace at KPMG. SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh “knows this and hence is perhaps having interesting conversations with both.”
RAMPING UP The Indian discount airline needs to ramp up its 43-plane fleet quickly to pose a meaningful threat to IndiGo, which controls 38.5 percent of the market and flies 108 aircraft. IndiGo’s owner, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd.,has placed orders for 430 Airbus A320neo planes, with a target to build a 1,000-jet fleet eventually. A SpiceJet spokesman confirmed that Singh is attending this week’s Farnborough Air Show in the U.K., but declined to say whether an order announcement is imminent.
SMALLER PLANES “We will continue to work with them on the fleet needs and look forward to delivering their first 737Max,” Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s senior vice president for sales, said in an e-mail. ” Airbus enjoys 70 percent market share in India and most Indian carriers are growing their business with us,” said Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon. “We’d be delighted to help SpiceJet too.” Bombardier Inc., which is enjoying a revival with its C Series narrow-body jet starting service and winning a benchmark deal with Delta Air Lines Inc., is in a separate race for more than 50 smaller planes that SpiceJet is buy ing. The Canadian aircraft producer will be competing against Brazil’s Embraer SA and the Avions de Transport Regional, or ATR, joint venture of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo-Finmeccanica SpA. At least eight budget carriers dot Indian skies, where air travel grew more than 20 percent last year,according to the International Air Transport Association.
GoAir Inks $7.7-b Deal with Airbus GoAir, fifth-biggest carrier by passengers travelled in the country, announced on Tuesday a preliminary agreement with European planemaker Airbus to buy 72 A320neos in a deal worth about $7.7 billion at current list prices. The deal will help continue GoAir’s growth, the airline said in a statement, and built on its existing order for 72 of the same aircraft which it made in 2011. “The new aircraft will help us in unlocking new domestic routes while providing a springboard for continued international network expansion in the years to come,” Go Air CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said in the statement. Bobby Ryan Womens Jersey
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