There is a deja vu feeling every time reports of SpiceJet hitting turbulence hit the news cycle. Because when it comes to this pan-Indian low-cost airline operator, we’ve seen it all before.
Just read the following news report: “A summer of misfortune. Its coffers had run dry and sundry authorities ranging from India’s aviation regulator DGCA to foreign airports like Dubai and even the PF office and taxman putting it on notice….the story, already compounded with unpaid vendors and staff with salaries pending…seemed like a potent recipe for the final nose dive.”
It is a news item I filed about the airline two years ago. But you could be forgiven for thinking it is from today.
Hell, even I would have been confused! Because the same story is playing out all over again. Hundreds of passengers protested at Delhi Airport as SpiceJet’s Dubai flights got delayed on Monday: one was cancelled while the other left 30 hours later, on Tuesday afternoon.
But it’s not a one-off. Reports of SpiceJet flight delays and cancellations, especially to the Gulf, have been coming for weeks from airports across the country, including Pune last week, and Kochi the week before.
In fact, last month Kochi Airport even issued a sharply worded statement to the public after SpiceJet blamed local weather for its flight delays. “SpiceJet has issued a social media communication spreading misinformation,” said Kochi airport operator Cochin International Airports Limited (CIAL), bluntly blaming the airline for “operational issues affecting its services internationally.”
“There were no adverse weather conditions in Kochi warranting the disruption cited in the communication — no other airline operating from Kochi has reported such cancellations on account of weather conditions during the same period. Despite the continuing passenger grievances, the issues have not been adequately addressed or rectified by the airline,” CIAL added.
Not only has its fleet depleted — it had about 100 planes at its peak but is currently flying with just 11— aviation minister Kinjarippu Ram Mohan warned last week that the government is keeping a sharp eye on the airline. The issue seems to be financial, with dues pending to lessors, vendors and engineering firms. Staff, too, apparently.
THE WEEK’s request for clarification from SpiceJet on these issues remains unanswered.
It is like nothing has changed for the airline, which in aviation circles is often referred to as the ‘cat with nine lives’. Every time the Gurugram-based airline seems like it is on a nose dive, it flips upright near-magically to land on four feet.
The only question then is, how many lives has this ‘cat’ expended already?
The latest woes it faces are familiar: flights being delayed inordinately, some as much as 30 hours, irate passengers leading to fracas at top airport terminals, a litany of court cases, a depleted fleet, and as reports suggest, staff who have not been paid for months.
For founder-promoter Ajay Singh, all this would be nothing new. The airline, since its inception in the mid-2000s, has had a sketchy existence — Singh himself lost control of the airline, with the Marans of the Sun Group taking it over for a few years, until another threat of ‘Skyfall’ arrived and Singh took his airline back.
There was a time when the airline soared to score the second-highest market share in the country (No.2 with nearly 21% market share in July 2014, behind then-leader Jet Airways and ahead of Air India and Indigo). But those days now seem like an impossible memory — last month it was just 2%
While we know what happened after that, what has never ceased to amaze has been Spice’s intrepid survival skills. From the Marans to lessors, the company faced complaint after complaint with pending dues or damages in courts. Every time fuel prices spiked, and some pandemic or war erupted, the company shuddered. Even when the Boeing 737 Max imbroglio erupted globally after twin crashes in the 2018-19 period, SpiceJet was the worst affected in India, since it had the maximum number of that plane type in its fleet. Or when lessors took back planes or cases went against it in court.
The question now is, will SpiceJet use up another one of its many lives? Industry sources say the management is trying to get its grounded planes up and running in time for the festive season rush in November, but will that be too late for the beleaguered airline?
