TravTalk India Online Magazine
SpiceJet has become the first low-cost carrier (LCC) in India to join the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents over 290 airlines around the world. This takes IATA’s tally in India to five.
TT Bureau
Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, International Air Transport Association (IATA), had revealed in December 2018 that SpiceJet had applied for IATA membership. Now, the airline has become the first Indian low-cost carrier to join the trade association. With the IATA membership, SpiceJet can seamlessly expand the network options for its passengers in the future. Currently, Indian carriers that are members of IATA include Air India, Jet Airways, Jet Lite and Vistara.
In a statement, SpiceJet said that the membership and the benefits that come with it will play a significant role in helping the ambitious airline expand internationally. “The membership allows the airline to explore and grow its collaborations with international member airlines of IATA through interlining and codeshares, enabling SpiceJet to seamlessly expand the network options for its passengers in future,” the statement read.
Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, “The membership will further enable us to inculcate global best practices and innovations. IATA also provides us a platform to closely work and collaborate with other airline members and expand our network through codeshares and agreements with partner airlines.”
Welcoming SpiceJet into the organisation, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President—Asia Pacific, IATA, said, “SpiceJet is the first Indian low-cost carrier to be an IATA member, and our fifth member in India. We are delighted to welcome SpiceJet as part of the 290 [-plus] airlines in the IATA family.”
Recently, SpiceJet received IATA’s Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) certificate.
SpiceJet launches 8 daily flights to Gwalior under UDAN III
- Expanding its reach to new destinations under UDAN III, SpiceJet has announced the commencement of eight new daily flights to Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. The city will be the airline’s 11th destination under the regional connectivity scheme and overall 52nd domestic destination. The eight new flights will also make SpiceJet the first airline to offer daily direct flights on the Gwalior-Hyderabad-Gwalior, Gwalior-Jammu-Gwalior, Gwalior-Bengaluru-Gwalior and Gwalior-Kolkata Gwalior sectors. The budget carrier has also announced four new daily flights connecting Bhopal including daily non-stop flight between Udaipur and Bhopal from March 31. It also announced daily direct flights between Chennai and Bhopal.
