SpiceJet starts its third international destination, to launch flights to Kathmandu – NetworkThoughts

SpiceJet, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, is launching flights to Kathmandu starting May 10, 2025. This comes amidst the airline further shrinking its network to just two international destinations, Dubai and Bangkok after having pulled out from all other destinations as the schedule shifted to Northern Summer 2025, shows data by Cirium, an aviation analytics company. 

Flights operate daily with B737-800NG, as per the airline booking engine. 

SpiceJet has been a historic operator at Kathmandu. 

SpiceJet currently connects Dubai to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kochi, Delhi, Madurai, Jaipur and Pune; while it connects Bangkok to Delhi and Kolkata.

The airline does not operate to Jeddah, where news reports had indicated that it would operate following the operationalisation of its MAX aircraft. The airline also intermittently operated to Phuket over the last year. While it is in the process of settling issues with all lenders, especially lessors, its financial position would not allow it to sustain losses for longer on any route. 

India – Nepal is very competitive

There are 66 weekly frequencies between Delhi and Kathmandu, with Air India having 35 weekly flights, followed by IndiGo at 21 weekly flights. Nepal Airlines operates seven while Bhutan Airlines operates thrice a week. SpiceJet will add its own seven flights a week to this mix. IndiGo also offers a daily flight from Mumbai, while Nepal Airlines operates thrice a week to Bengaluru and twice a week to Mumbai. Buddha Air operates from Varanasi, a route which has seen operations by Indian Airlines in the past.

SpiceJet will aim to make the most of the holiday season and like most of its other routes, possibly withdraw when the market becomes tough. IndiGo already caters to a significant Origin – Destination traffic, while Air India caters to both Origin – Destination and connecting traffic with a bank of flights to Europe and America. 

Tail Note

SpiceJet has had a round of funding raising around INR 3000 crore from various investors. It has also been on a settlement spree with vendors and lessors. However, there remain cases which are in the court of law which focus on the pending dues. The airline has far too many distractions before it can focus on the core aviation part. The founders / promoters could do well to have a trusted COO or a CEO in place who can drive the aviation side of business without being bothered by the operational, commercial and legal aspects. 

At its small market share, it does not hurt to be a “hit-or-miss” operator where it makes the most of the good times and then vacates the market for another good market. The strategy though is not a long term solution.

Found this article informative? Think of supporting Network Thoughts with Power of 10

Running this website incurs some cost, along with the data sourced for analytics. If you have liked this article, consider paying INR 10 via UPI. The site will continue to be free. This will help with the maintenance, upkeep and funding the research. You can also pay via Debit or Credit card by clicking on this link.

You can support Network Thoughts by ordering Network Thoughts baggage tags !

Follow NetworkThoughts on X (Formerly Twitter),  Bsky, Facebook and YouTube.