SpiceJet Going to Buy Over 100 Seaplane: Chief Ajay Singh

The fastest growing aviation market in the worlds airline SpiceJet takes a big step to support aviation industry, Chief Ajay Singh announced to purchase 100 seaplanes in this year. With regard to purchase of the up to 14-seater amphibian aircraft that can operate on land as well as on water bodies SpiceJet has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Setouchi Holdings.

A Seaplane or Amphibian Aircraft is an aircraft that can take off and land on both land and water. Fixed-wing amphibious aircraft are seaplanes (flying boats and floatplanes) that are equipped with retractable wheels, at the expense of extra weight and complexity, plus diminished range and fuel economy compared to planes designed for land or water only. Some amphibians are fitted with reinforced keels which act as skis, allowing them to land on snow or ice with their wheels up.

India has 7,516.6 km sea border, which is one of the largest for a country, seaplanes are specially design for takeoff and land on both land and water. And we have number of large rivers in India. According knowing every river can be an airstrip and pond can be an airport.

So it is a revolution in aviation sector because for flying aircrafts there is required of an airstrip, airport which required larger investment, but is case of seaplane both are readymade and given by nature and we can use as it is. So Government of India is very interest to use seaplane in India because it requires minimum infrastructure it as cheap as use of a boat. SpiceJet takes an initiative to buy 100 seaplanes we is going to use from Mumbai to Goa.

India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world and requires thousand of aircrafts, airports and in large number of technicians and Aircraft Maintenance Engineers to handle these aircrafts. AME is responsible for safety and security of a flying machine.

IMaCS’s Comprehensive Skill Gap Report submitted to the Ministry highlights that 72,900 technicians and AMEs will be required by the industry by 2035. DGCA data indicates that 3,644 Basic Licenses and only 159 type rated AME licenses were issued in the last 5 years. So there is a good scope of Aircraft maintenance Engineer in India because the demand of AME is very high than supply.

Assam Chief Minister Mr. Sarbananda Sonowal said SpiceJet’s plan would be a big boost up for regional connectivity scheme in India. Setouchi Holdings Executive MD Go Okazaki said, “Indian market is the most important market in the world… Today we have a partnership with SpiceJet”. The SpiceJet Chief informed that one seaplane costs around USD 4 million which would translate to a total amount of more than USD 400 million which is about Rs 2,600 crore for over 100 amphibian planes.