United States Vice President Mike Pence wants to visit SpiceJet’s office on his trip to India, the airline said on Wednesday. The news comes a day after the airline finalised an order of 205 new planes with American aircraft manufacturer Boeing – a deal worth $22 billion (around Rs 1.5 lakh crore).
Pence had met SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh on Tuesday at the annual gala of the US-India Business Council in Washington. Singh had gifted Pence a model of a SpiceJet aircraft.
“Pence informed Singh that he was invited by the prime minister to visit India, which he has accepted,” the airline’s spokesperson said, according to PTI. “The vice president also expressed a desire to visit the SpiceJet office during his India visit.”
The US vice president had lauded SpiceJet for creating thousands of high-value jobs in his country with the Boeing order. “And let me just take the opportunity, as the president did yesterday, to say thank you to SpiceJet for investing and believing in American workers and American businesses,” Pence had said at the meeting.
The deal is believed to have create 1,32,000 high-skilled, high-paid jobs for Americans.
Singh had confirmed the deal in January. He had said that the company will buy 155 Boeing 737-8 Max and 50 other planes, including dreamliners and B-737s.
SpiceJet was on the verge of closure two years ago, but the airline rebuilt both its business and its image under Singh’s administration. On Tuesday it was reported that SpiceJet had gained 800% since 2014 and had been ranked the world’s best performing airline stock on the Bloomberg Intelligence Index.
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