India’s private airline SpiceJet today operated it’s first-ever long-haul wide-body charter flight to North America. In a unique initiative, SpiceJet repatriated 352 Canadian nationals and permanent residency holders from New Delhi to Toronto today.
The flight departed from New Delhi at 8.10 am IST and is scheduled to reach Toronto at 6:40 pm (local time). The airline chartered a wide-body Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft from Hi Fly for this flight. The twin-aisle A330 Neo aircraft has a configuration of 353 economy and 18 business class seats.
Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, SpiceJet said, “Our first-ever long-haul charter flight to Canada is yet another example of our commitment to helping as many people as we can to get back home to their families in these troubled times. Being the first Indian budget airline to operate a non-stop long-haul flight to North America is a proud moment for the SpiceJet family. We have operated flights across the globe repatriating close to 85,000 people and transporting over 28,000 tons of medical and essential supplies and we intend to keep on with our efforts.”
On August 1, SpiceJet had repatriated 269 Indians who had been stranded in Amsterdam to Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The airline has operated over 515 charter and Vande Bharat flights to help repatriate close to 85,000 stranded Indian citizens from countries such as Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Netherlands, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka.
