India’s SpiceJet to launch scheduled London flights in 4Q20

SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int’l) has confirmed it will launch scheduled services from both Mumbai Int’l and Delhi Int’l to London Heathrow starting on December 4, 2020. Flights from Delhi will operate 2x weekly and from Mumbai weekly. The services will be SpiceJet’s first intercontinental services. The low-cost carrier is a predominantly domestic airline with nearly 83% of its total capacity deployed within India, the ch-aviation capacities module shows. According to the TNN news agency, the airline will operate the route with a wet-leased A330-900 equipped with 353 economy class seats and 18 business class seats. While the report did not name the operator of the aircraft, the only A330-900 in such a configuration is CS-TKY (msn 1929) operated by Hi Fly (5K, Beja), the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. HiFly has already operated multiple flights on behalf of SpiceJet in the recent months, including to Amsterdam Schiphol and Toronto Pearson. However, they were all flown under HiFly’s own code. It also currently wet-leases a Hi Fly Malta (HFM, Malta Int’l) A340-300 makeshift freighter for cargo flights between India and Europe. SpiceJet is set to become the third Indian carrier serving London, after Air India (AI, Mumbai Int’l) and Vistara (UK, Delhi Int’l). On the UK side, services to India are operated by both British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) and Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow), the ch-aviation schedules module shows.