In March 2020, soon after the cessation of airline operations globally and domestic flights within India, many in the aviation sector had written Delhi-headquartered low-fare airline SpiceJet's obituary well before that of most of its rivals. Unlike IndiGo, GoAir (now rechristened Go First), Vistara and even AirAsia India, SpiceJet did not have founders or backers with deep pockets. Although it is the only other listed carrier in India besides IndiGo, it was considered the weakest and the least likely to survive the pandemic. But chairman and managing director Ajay Singh surprised everyone by not only surviving but taking the lead on many fronts. Within a few weeks of the scheduled flight stoppage, SpiceJet was doing as many charter flights as it could get hold of.
SpiceJet slumped slumped almost 14 per cent amid reports that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to withdraw credit facility to the low-cost carrier.
Demand for the earlier variant 737NG planes is also expected to pick up due to the grounding of MAX planes.
Domestic air passenger traffic remained 44 per cent lower in the April-December 2021 against the corresponding period of FY20, but saw a jump of 52 per cent year-on-year to 111 lakh in December 2021, according to rating agency ICRA. The total domestic passenger traffic had stood at 73 lakh in December 2020, according to a report by the rating agency. It also said that the emergence of new coronavirus variant and reactionary restrictions impacting air travel remain near term-challenges for the airline industry.
Rahul Bhatia, a promoter of the company, has been appointed as the interim CEO.
There were nearly 4,000 cabin crew with Jet when the airline was grounded; every fifth remains without a job to date. One cabin crew member with 10 years of experience has been forced to take up a teaching job; some have branched out into small businesses. Aviation jobs were scarce even before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived on Indian shores in early 2020. The situation has been exacerbated since.
Jet Airways' engineers, pilots and senior management have not been paid for January and February, besides 87.5 per cent of their December salary is also due.
While IndiGo had 11.8 per cent of all the international seats to and fro India in the last week of August, Air India's seat share was 11.4 per cent. Emirates came third with 8.1 per cent, and rest of the airlines constituted 68 per cent of the seat share.
Experts expect a net loss of Rs 26.7 billion for IndiGo and Rs 10.1 billion for SpiceJet in Q1FY21 driven by low traffic volume, low fleet utilisation and poor coverage of fixed costs.
SBI is the lead lender to Jet Airways, which has a debt burden of more than Rs 8,000 crore.
Jet Airways has also been asked to provide details of the pilots who are "habitual" of reporting sick and disrupting the airline's schedule, an official said.
While the airline is accommodating passengers on available flights, this is resulting in extending travel time and detour for customers.
It takes only two hours - roughly the time it takes for a plane to fly from Delhi to Mumbai - for a pair of pilots to complete their training on the 737 MAX simulator at Boeing's centre in Noida, the only one of its kind in India. Going by this estimate, all the 90 Spicejet pilots who the civil aviation regulator barred from flying the 737 MAX can be retrained in 90 hours.
About 350 Boeing 737 Max 8 are currently in service with airlines around the world, with thousands more on order. Boeing insists it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies.
Amid reports of a possible stake sale, low-cost airline SpiceJet on Friday said it is exploring all options to mop up funds to overcome the cash crunch.
Based on the Skytrax ranking for 2018, IndiGo is number two among the best low-cost carriers in Asia, behind rival AirAsia.
Interestingly, the full service carrier's launch coincides with the concluding day of the the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations scheduled to be held in Gujarat's capital city Gandhinagar, near Ahmedabad, from January 7 to January 9.
'The need for added safety has bolstered demand for charter flights in the last year and is expected to continue.'
Jet Airways requires at least 200 more pilots to carry out its operations in a seamless manner
With full-service carrier Jet Airways and budget airline SpiceJet operating 737 MAX planes, the DGCA has decided to seek information about the aircraft from Boeing as well as the two domestic carriers in view of the air crash in Ethiopia.
The airfares are already 15 per cent higher than last season and due to this shortage it will go higher, said Sharat Dhall, COO of Yatra.com.
Apart from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, the codeshare agreement with Lufthansa will cover Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Pune.
International and Indian airlines are refusing to refund cash and giving credit that can be used later.
A source said that the lenders have proposed to change the management of the beleaguered air carrier as they feel it is not possible to run the company with present management.
Beleaguered no-frills carrier SpiceJet on Monday approached the government for financial aid.
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The airline management has now sought a meeting with civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju to present the airline's plan.
The April 2 Supreme Court order quashing the February 12, 2018 RBI circular (which ended all debt recast plans even on a one-day default) put paid to the resolution plan as banks were left with no leeway to restructure the loan and pay the promised Rs 1,500 crore interim funds.
To make space for the extra row, Vistara has opted for the smartLav concept offered by Airbus
A shortage of pilots and cabin crew is one reason for flight delays.
Airline's auditor attributes profit to changes in accounting system; GoAir says full disclosure made and auditor's note is unqualified
The founders of IndiGo may have thought it's time to go for a rejig of the top leadership team which can take care of the growing demands of an airline that has grown much bigger than they could have ever imagined, says Shyamal Majumdar.
Concerned about the deteriorating financial and operational performance of the Kalanithi Maran-promoted airline, the DGCA had on Friday withdrawn 186 flight slots of SpiceJet and directed it not to take bookings for flights beyond a month.
Sale of wide-body aircraft will not affect internatinal flights, says Jet
'Boeing has returned some cash to the airline which will help it improve the current liquidity crisis.'
SpiceJet has been most affected by the grounding of 737 Max 8 aircraft as it has 12 of them in its fleet.
This is also the highest ever profit recorded by the carrier, which was facing turbulent times a year ago.
Lessor market sources said with the fuel prices remaining high, IndiGo would get better rates for the fuel-efficient A320neos.
Ninety-seven people, including nine children, were killed and two passengers miraculously survived the fiery crash when the PIA flight PK-8303 with 99 travellers on board plunged into a densely populated residential area near the airport here.
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