SpiceJet

Headquartered in Gurgaon with operational hubs at IGI Airport in New Delhi and Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad, SpiceJet Airlines began operations in May 2005 after the air-operating certificate (AOC) of the erstwhile Modiluft (later renamed as Royal Airlines) got new owners and SpiceJet booking facility was opened.

SpiceJet India began operations as a low cost domestic carrier and its first flight was from Delhi to Mumbai via Ahmedabad. Building upon its promotional offer of abysmally low fares in the beginning, Spice Jet Airways set out on the market capturing drive and by 2008, it emerged as the second largest low cost carrier in the country in terms of market share. In 2007, Skytrax rated it as the best low cost airline in South and Central Asia.

Spice Jet Airlines is famed for its operational efficiencies and marketing acumen aimed at attracting and retaining budget travelers with its highly successful advertisement campaigns. Its logo "Flying for everyone" sums up its corporate philosophy. The increasing sale of the Spice air tickets has led to a soaring revenue graph of the airline since 2006 with revenues increasing from $86.1 mn in 2006 to $562.51 mn in 2011.

Spice Jet has a reach to 31 domestic cities with 243 daily flights. After the completion of five years of domestic operations, the airline became eligible to take international destinations within its ambit of operations. Consequently, SpiceJet booking can now be done for 33 total numbers of destinations. It currently operates on two international routes, Delhi-Kathmandu and Chennai-Colombo, serving two international cities: Colombo and Kathmandu.

Being a low cost carrier, Spice Jet has been very careful in selecting its fleet of aircraft. It has always opted for those aircraft which are operationally most fuel efficient and have optimal seating capacities. Making a beginning with the three leased Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft, the SpiceJet airline has grown to have 26 Boeing 737-800 189 seater aircraft, 6 Boeing 737-900ER 212 seater aircrafts and the 7 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 78 seater aircraft. The average age of 4.6 years of its 39 aircraft fleet makes it one of the newest fleet among the low cost domestic carriers.

SpiceJet has primary hubs at airports in New Delhi and Hyderabad and secondary hubs at Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata which makes it reach out to the cities of the whole country. The main focus cities of the SpiceJet Airlines are Bangalore, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Pune.