SpiceJet tanks 4% as airline sends 80 pilots on Leave Without Pay

The low-cost airline has been reporting losses for the past four years and is operating less than 50 per cent flights, following the July 27 DGCA order in the wake of mishaps.

Shares of SpiceJet plunged 4 per cent in intraday trades on Tuesday, the low-cost airline sent 80 pilots on leave without pay for three months in its bid to rationalise costs.

At 10:50 AM, the stock traded 3.5 per cent lower at Rs 42.10, amid heavy volume of around 4.07 lakh shares on the BSE. Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark was mor or less unmoved at 59,732.

Meanwhile, among other airline stocks, Jet Airways had zoomed 4 per cent to Rs 101. IndiGo added 0.3 per cent to Rs 1,914.

SpiceJet has been reporting losses for the past four years and is operating less than 50 per cent flights (total 90-odd aircrafts), following the July 27 order of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in the wake of mishaps. 

In a statement, SpiceJet said it had in 2019 inducted more than 30 aircraft following the grounding of the B737 MAX aircraft. “The airline had continued with its planned pilot induction programme with the hope that the MAX would be back in service soon. However, the prolonged grounding of the MAX fleet resulted in a large number of excess pilots at SpiceJet,” it noted. READ MORE

Earlier in August 2022, Ajay Singh-promoted SpiceJet and Swiss bank Credit Suisse settled a long winding dispute through an out of court settlement. This led to the withdrawal of an appeal by SpiceJet against a Madras High Court order that would have potentially led to the winding up of the low-cost airline.

For the quarter ended June 2022, SpiceJet had reported a net loss of Rs 78.83 crore as against a loss of Rs 72.91 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. This was despite, a 95 per cent surge in total income to Rs 247.84 crore from Rs 126.59 crore in the same comparable period.