INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
around 22 aircraft from the grounded fleet of Jet Airways on a sub-lease basis and deploy the first such plane on the domestic sector within
the next few days, informed sources said on Monday.The industry sources told IANS that the budget passenger carrier will sub-lease about 22
aircraft from Jet Airways' lessors
The airline has also started to re-brand the sub-leased aircraft with SpiceJet insignia.The first re-branded Boeing 737 from Jet's lessors
will be deployed on the domestic sector within the next few days.Prior to temporarily suspending all flight services, Jet had already folded
up most of its operations due to grounding of around 90 per cent of its fleet by lessors.The airline owes 16 aircraft, while the rest were
Last year it had a fleet of around 120 aircraft.Other airlines such as Air India have also evinced interest in sub-leasing Jet's grounded
aircraft."The airline (SpiceJet) is adding huge capacity
They are not only taking leased aircraft but also inducting 22 sub-leased aircraft from Jet Airways' lessors," an industry insider told
IANS."Pilots and cabin crew have also joined the airline
Aircraft are capital-intensive assets and grounding them for long not only causes financial losses but results in heavy maintenance
weeks, with most of them coming from Jet.Last week, SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh had said: "As we expand and grow, we
are giving first preference to those who have recently lost their jobs due to the unfortunate closure of Jet Airways
SpiceJet had said that it would induct as many as 27 planes in a record time of less than two weeks.At present, the budget passenger carrier
domestic and international slots vacated due to Jet's temporary grounding.Currently, there are 280 slots in Mumbai and over 160 in Delhi
that are left vacant.These slots will be re-allocated by a committee comprising airport operators, Airports Authority of India and the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), with preference being given to those airlines which bring in extra planes.On April 17, around
20,000 employees and passengers were hit hard as Jet Airways announced temporary suspension of all flight services as it failed to secure
interim funding from lenders to maintain even bare minimum operations.Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for
Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on TheIndianSubcontinent.com/elections
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