SpiceJet inducts first Airbus plane

Moving beyond the US aircraft maker Boeing, budget carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday inducted an Airbus A320 aircraft in its fleet. The first Airbus A320, wet-leased from Czech company CSA, landed at Indira Gandhi International airport at around 7.40 pm. The Gurgon-based airline plans to wet-lease one more Airbus for its operations by the month-end, an airline official said.

These planes are being taken on wet lease of three months, the official said, adding, they will be deployed on the metro routes.Under wet lease arrangements, the lessor also provides the flight and cabin crew along with the plane besides insurance and maintenance costs.

SpiceJet, which is into operations for over ten years now, has for the first time inducted an Airbus plane in its fleet as so far it was depending on Boeing's narrow body B737s and Canadian Bombardier Q400.

An airline official had last month said the carrier was planning to replace some of its Boeing 737s with Airbus planes. In April this year, the no-frills airline, which started operations in 2005, had dry leased three Boeing 737s from the Czech-based firm TVS for a three-month period.