SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) is expecting four more Dash 8-400s to join its fleet this winter season with plans to base them out of Kolkata.

Airline sources who spoke to India's Hindustan Times said the turboprops would be used on the LCC's existing Northeastern services to Guwahati and Agartala as well as to start flights to Silchar, Aizawl and Gorakhpur this October.

SpiceJet currently operates a fleet of fourteen Q400s the bulk of which are leased from Maple Leaf Financial Services with only one leased from Nordic Aviation Capital.

Meanwhile, in Western India, SpiceJet, along with Air India (AI, Delhi International), Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International), and IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi International), have petitioned New Delhi to allow them to transit the Arabian Gulf when flying to the Middle East from cities such as Ahmedabad.

At present, the carriers are forced to transit Pakistani airspace enroute to destinations such as Dubai International, a routing they say is both more expensive, given its added length, and now more dangerous given the recent deterioration in Pakistan-India relations.

The four airlines have since requested the Indian Ministry of Defense to allow them to use military airspace under a dual-use charter. The military has, in turn, said it would consider the request while noting the presence of several sensitive areas under the airlines' proposed flight paths.