SpiceJet to debut widebody wet-lease in mid-3Q20

SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int'l) has confirmed it will operate its first-ever widebody flight on August 1, 2020, from Amsterdam Schiphol via Bangalore Int'l to Hyderabad Int'l, using an A330-900 wet-leased from Hi Fly (5K, Beja).

The carrier said via its official Twitter account that the flight would operate as a repatriation charter. However, SpiceJet has recently secured designations to launch scheduled services to the United States and the United Kingdom and hopes to do so once travel restrictions are reduced.

CS-TKY (msn 1929), a one-year-old Airbus widebody, has already been used extensively to operate COVID-related charters, although so far it has only been deployed under Hi Fly's own code. The contract with SpiceJet will be the aircraft's first wet-lease deployment during the pandemic.

"This A330-900 can do India-US nonstop. We plan to utilise it initially for charters to wherever the demand is for. Later it may be used for schedule flights under the travel bubbles India is forming with some countries," an airline source told the Times of India.

SpiceJet does not operate any in-house widebody aircraft. It has, of recent, been linked to a wet-lease deal for up to three A330s from Oman Air (WY, Muscat).

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