Difficult times over, SpiceJet's future looks secure now

Emphasising that its future now looks secure with a restructuring process underway, SpiceJet's top executive Sanjiv Kapoor said the difficult period created by some "legacy issues" are over for the carrier.

Amid the no-frills carrier facing turbulent times, its original co-founder Ajay Singh has agreed to acquire 58.46 per cent stake from the Marans as part of a revival plan that would also see recapitalisation of SpiceJet.

"The good news is that the company is, at the time of this writing, in the process of changing hands with the return to the airline of co-founder Ajay Singh as promoter, and along with that comes re-capitalisation of the airline.

"The future now looks secure," SpiceJet Chief Operating Officer Sanjiv Kapoor said.

Addressing SpiceJet customers through his column in the latest edition of its monthly in-flight magazine, Kapoor said the carrier has been the driving force behind demand stimulation and strong market growth, benefitting the entire travel ecosystem.

"We plan to grow back as soon as possible to the size and scale we had achieved in the middle of 2014, when we had grown to become the second airline for domestic air travel in terms of passengers flown, with 21 per cent market share, before legacy issues caught up with us and led to a difficult period for the company," he said.

However, he did not elaborate on the legacy issues. At present, SpiceJet has a market share of little over 10 per cent.

In the wake of financial crunch, the airline had curtailed its operations to around 230 daily flights from a peak of around 345 flights.

Noting that SpiceJet has been going through a very challenging time over the last two months, Kapoor appreciated the efforts of the Civil Aviation Ministry in helping it get "some breathing room" from creditors as part of restructuring.

According to him, it was not a bailout and there was no funding of any kind involved from the government or taxpayer funds. "It was simply a few weeks of credit based on standard commercial terms," he added.

As part of the revival plan, Kalanithi Maran, his wife Kavery Kalanithi and Managing Director S Natrajhen have resigned from the SpiceJet board to make way for new directors in wake of ownership change.

Among others, Marans would also be infusing funds into the carrier.