In more trouble for low-cost airline SpiceJet, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the airline to come up with a convincing payment schedule for its dues to various creditors, which totalled ₹1,600 crore as of December 5. The airline is controlled by billionaire Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group.

The airline has been asked to send its reply to the regulator by December 15, sources said. The move comes after reports of the airline cancelling flights.

SpiceJet’s daily departures have now declined to 239 from 332 on September 1 this year. The airline regulator has also directed the carrier not to book flights beyond a month in advance. The DGCA has also withdrawn over 100 slots that the airline had taken as it has not been able to operate flights from them. A slot is a landing and take-off position at an airport. There have also been reports of salaries for employees being delayed this month.

Addressing a press conference here on November 18, Sanjiv Kapoor, the airline’s Chief Operating Officer, had said that the airline had changed its schedule. “We have changed it for a short time till sometime in December and we are accommodating them (passengers),” he had said.

To alleviate the misery of passengers who have made bookings, the DGCA has directed that fares for all cancelled flights are to be refunded within a month. The airline has also been asked to provide a daily report on the amount of money refunded.

Improved performance The DGCA’s action comes at a time when SpiceJet reported an improvement in its financial performance, during the second quarter of the current fiscal year, narrowing its net loss by 45 per cent to ₹310.4 crore.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has advised restraint, saying drastic action against an airline can have a catastrophic impact on the sector.

“All steps must be taken to ensure that the sector is nurtured. Any closure will see many families being left stranded and in a dire financial situation,” a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.

On Friday, the airline’s stock closed 13.78 per cent down, at ₹15.95, on the BSE.

Meanwhile, SpiceJet has clarified that it has informed the DGCA and public that for the near-medium term, it intends to operate a fleet of 22 Boeing 737s and 15 Q400s, down from 37 B737s that they operated earlier this year.

``As a natural consequence of the fleet reduction of 15 Boeings, unused slots are given back to the airports. This is routine process and a natural outcome of our revised fleet plan, and there is nothing unusual about the slots being cancelled,” the airline said in a statement.

The statement adds that it has already stopped future bookings on cancelled flights, something that the DGCA ordered.

The airline has said that it feels the restriction of not allowing future bookings to be more than one month in advance will be counter-productive and it will be discussing the pros and cons of this cooperatively with the DGCA.

As regards staff salaries the airline has clarified that it has paid 85 per cent of staff and the remaining will be paid next week.

It has also categorically denied that it has not been put on cash and carry at any airport. Cash and carry means that an airline has to pay up cash for services that are used before a flight is allowed to operate. Generally airports around the country follow a credit system where by airlines are billed for a service at the end of a stipulated time period rather than being asked to pay every time a facility is used at an airport.

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