Visiting US president Barack Obama listed US aircraft maker Boeing’s finalising a 30-aircraft deal with Gurgaon-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet, but the agreement was actually struck some months earlier. Also, the 12,970 jobs this deal is supposed to create will be staggered, as delivery of the aircraft will be on for four years.
The deal was announced by SpiceJet in July-end at a conference in the presence of Boeing India President Dinesh Keskar. Deliveries for the aircraft are to start from 2014 and end by 2018.
Altogether, Obama, during this trip, has announced $15 billion of deals that will support 53,670 jobs in his country. This included the $2-billion GE-Reliance Power deal for the 2,400-Mw Samalkot plant in Andhra Pradesh, which too was signed earlier, on October 22, though it was “commemorated” on Saturday in the presence of the US president. The gas-based power project will be operational by 2012 and result in $2 bn of manufacturing exports from the US to India over the next 24 months. “In the United States, the export of these turbines – assembled principally in Greenville, SC and Schnectady, NY – will support US jobs,” Jeffrey Immelt, GE chairman said in a statement. The contract with GE is supported by financing from the Export-Import Bank of the US.
Boeing, in a release sent today, said: “Valued at about $2.3 bn at list prices, SpiceJet had declared its intent to purchase Boeing’s Next-Generation 737-800 in July this year. This order was previously attributed to an unidentified customer on Boeing’s orders and deliveries website.”
At present, SpiceJet operates with a fleet of 24 Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft and will add four in the current financial year.
The airline has also said it will spend as much as $900 million to purchase 30 turboprop aircraft from Canada's Bombardier Inc, deliveries for which will commence from the second quarter of 2011. The firm will initially purchase 15 Bombardier aircraft for $450 million.
SpiceJet is a Gurgaon-based low-cost carrier owned by Sun TV promoter Kalanithi Maran. In June, Maran and Kal Airways had agreed to buy 37.7 per cent in the carrier from US investor Wilbur Ross and Royal Holdings Services, held by the earlier promoters, the Kansagra family, for Rs 750 crore at Rs 47.25 a share. Maran also came up with an open offer to buy another 20 per cent in the airline.