SpiceJet gains 3% as airline to start flights to London from December 4

Shares of budget-carrier SpiceJet shot up 3.3 per cent to Rs 52 apiece on the BSE on Monday after the company's chairman and managing director Ajay Singh announced commencement of London-bound flights from December 4.

Addressing media via video conferencing, CMD Ajay Singh said the airline would start flights between Delhi and Mumbai to London within two months. Besides, the airline would announce other destinations for long-haul flights in the days to come. 

The airline would deploy A330neo for London operations, he said.

At 2:50 pm, the stock of the low-cost carrier was ruling 2 per cent higher at Rs 51.35 per share, as against 0.88 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 4.04 million shares had changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE till the time of writing of this report.

In the June quarter of FY21, SpiceJet had reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 593.4 crore, against a profit of Rs 261.6 crore in the same quarter of the previous year. The loss was on account of suspension of flight operations for a major part of the quarter, following the nationwide lockdown announced by the government to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.

SpiceJet’s operating revenue was down 83 per cent to Rs 514.7 crore for the quarter, against Rs 3,002.1 crore in the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, operating expenses came in at Rs 1303.2 crore, against Rs 2,887.2 crore.

"The present operating environment on account of Covid-19 though does not reflect the true comparison of the current results with those of the corresponding quarter last year," the company said in a statement.