SpiceJet to return 3 aircraft by year-end

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet is mulling over sending two- three aircraft from its fleet back to plane lessors by the end of this year before the leasing period comes to an end.

If they are returned, the New Delhi-based airline will have a fleet of 16 aircraft in operations, with no plane grounded or subleased to other carriers.

An airline executive confirmed the development, saying that preliminary discussions to return the aircraft were on, though no decision has been taken yet. The executive said that SpiceJet is going to have a meeting with the leasing companies next week to decide the modalities of the return.

When contacted, SpiceJet CFO Parthasarathy Basu, however, said, "There are no plans to return any aircraft to the leasers. What we might look at is subleasing it to some other airline. We are currently in discussion with airlines like Air Nepal, who want to lease our aircraft."

SpiceJet operated the summer schedule with 19 aircraft in its fleet, out of which two had been grounded, one had gone for a 'c-check' (maintenance and repair check) and one had been subleased to the Netherlands-based low-cost airline Transavia. The remaining 15 aircraft are used for domestic flights in India.

Another executive said that for the winter schedule, which starts later this month, the airline will deploy 16 aircraft. An aircraft, which would be delivered by the end of this year, will be among the planes for the operations. "The one which had gone for a c-check will go back. So we will be left with two grounded aircraft and the subleased aircraft, which will come back to us by October 29. These are the three aircraft which we are planning to do away with," said the executive.

Usually when an aircraft is leased, it has a lock-in period or the period after which the leaser takes possession of the aircraft unless the lease is renewed. If the aircraft is returned prematurely before the end of the leasing period, an airline will have to pay lease rentals till the end of the lock-in period even if they are not using the aircraft.

In SpiceJet’s case, however, there was no lock-in period for the leased aircraft and experts say that the leasers might ask for a compensation when they take the aircraft back.