A war of words has been declared between two of India’s major low cost carriers, following a riposte by SpiceJet chief operating officer (COO) Sanjiv Kapoor to an earlier AirAsia tweet.
On Thursday, in a Twitter outburst, AirAsia founder Fernandes accused the Federation of Indian Airlines of blocking membership into the association and trying to persuade the civil aviation ministry not to include AirAsia and soon-to-be-launched Vistara Airlines in a consultative meeting.
Both AirAsia and Vistara are joint ventures with part foreign ownership.
Employing a not very subtle hint of jingoism, SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor has entered the fray with his own tweets.
Referring to a decision by AirAsia India to now operate flights to Mumbai, he wrote: "Interesting to see the new entrant foreign airline change strategy every month and claim full planes when loads are in the low 70s."
It went on: "Back in July, they claimed they were ‘sold out’ for the next two months, when a simple web check could prove that was false."
Kapoor did not name the foreign airline, but the inference was obvious.
"You can’t learn about a market by sitting inside your hotel room, you have got to go out. Very true if you are a foreigner," Kapoor added.
Fernandes has previously questioned SpiceJet’s strategy of continued discounting, calling it "illogical."
He has also said that Kapoor is obsessed with AirAsia India.
