SpiceJet Calls For Hike In Airfares To Avoid ‘Telecom-Like Monopoly’
It is up to India's largest carrier to raise airfares to a “sustainable level” to create a level-playing field and “avoid the telecom sector-like monopoly”, according to SpiceJet Ltd.'s Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh.
“There are parallels and it is important that we ensure that there will be lessons learnt from telecom and applied to aviation,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi on the sidelines of signing a memorandum of understanding with Bahrain-based Gulf Air.
IndiGo, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., is the largest airline in India with over 47 percent market share as on October, followed by SpiceJet with 16.3 percent market share, according to data released by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Singh's remarks come at a time when India's only two listed airlines posted their highest loss in the quarter ended September as costs rose and the rupee depreciated.
While Jet Airways' capacity has been recouped, more needs to be done to bring back passenger growth, Singh told BloombergQuint in an interview. “We are still in a high-cost environment and need to bring down cost of aviation fuel, airports and look for ways to do service and repair of planes on our own.”
SpiceJet's air passenger growth jumped to its highest in nearly four years in the seasonally strong October as India's second-largest airline increased capacity and offered discounts. The industry's domestic passenger growth, however, stood at 4 percent—the worst pace in October in at least six years and nearly one-fourth of the monthly average growth in last five years.
Watch the video for more:
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
