Inaugural Chennai-Madurai flight lands at Madurai

Madurai: The inaugural flight of the Chennai-Madurai Spicejet landed in Madurai on Monday with about 150 passengers onboard. The first flight of the low-cost airliner, promoted by Sun TV Network promoter Kalanithi Maran, was accorded a water gun salute at the airport in Madurai. The city has become the 20th destination of the carrier in India. On expansion of Spicejet, Samyukth Sridharan, chief commerical officer said  'Currently our fleet size is 22 aircraft. We will be increasing the fleet size with a mix of sale and lease back as well as going in for pure lease. These apart, the company has placed an order for 30 aircraft with Boeing and their deliveries will start happening.' Sridharan said the company may take two aircraft on its books at a later stage but primarily the expansion will be by leasing. Asked about the new destinations, He said the airline would launch two international flights next month. These would be to Kathmandu from New Delhi Oct 7 and to Colombo from Chennai Oct 9. He said the international routes may contribute around 10 percent to the company's topline. 'The demographic profile in destinations are similar to ours. As such there will be no additional costs involved. The operations will be on a hub and spoke model. Our Colombo flight will leave after our other flights to Chennai land,' added Sridharan. He said the company will first fly to SAARC countries and then look at other destinations.