Global Alliance: Spicejet & Emirates in talks, say sources

Spicejet may look to induct an Asian airline as a strategic partner. Sources indicate that Emirates and Spicejet are in initial talks, reports CNBC-TV18's Swati Khandelwal Jain.

This buzz has been doing rounds for quite sometime. Infact Spicejet has actually gone on record. While speaking to CNBC TV-18 on April 10, Neil Mills the CEO of Spicejet did mention that the company is open to collaborations with foreign players and the fact that Spicejet is attractively placed for FDI. Ofcourse this entire thing will only happen once the government clears the FDI proposal, which is pending at this point in time. May is a tentative time that’s when it’s expected that will get a clearance. However, nothing will move unless this particular norm changes, the foreign airlines are allowed to pick up stake in Indian airlines. However, as far as our sources are concerned, they do indicate that the companies are already doing their homework, infact Emirates and Spicejet could have actually initiated talks. Sources also tell us that both these parties have met in the last few weeks. The global chairman and CEO of Emirates was in India for sometime in March this year. He had met up with the government officials. That’s when he was also quoted as saying that, they will be open to looking at anything that helps his business and is at the right price. So, there have been those indications, which are coming in, both from Emirates and Spicejet. We will have to really wait and watch what really emerges out. Again unless the FDI norms change, so we will have to wait until maybe a couple of months or so to know whether this deal could go through. But it seems like both the parties are interested and could emerge as some sort of a collaboration between the two parties.