Passengers booked on SpiceJet flights out of New Delhi this morning had to wait a little longer than usual. But the delay was not due to faulty aircraft or lack of crew. Instead, Delhi airport’s Air Traffic Control did not give clearance to the airline’s flights due to non-payment of airport fees.
No fee, no flight
Indian LCC SpiceJet’s morning departures out of New Delhi were affected on Friday because Indira Gandhi International Airport’s ATC had been instructed not to give clearance to its aircraft for take-off.
Sources at the ATC, an arm of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), told the Business Standard that the airline failed to make the requisite daily payment due to which it had to take such a step. Unlike most other airlines in India, SpiceJet has to make a daily payment for the use of AAI airports.
A SpiceJet spokesperson clarified that a technical glitch in the software through which the airline makes payment resulted in the delay, adding,
"The automatic daily payment could not be processed. The same is being made manually to AAI which has been apprised of the issue. SpiceJet’s flight operations are now continuing normally."
But why would Delhi airport ask SpiceJet to pay cash upfront before using its services?
Cash and carry
The decision to allow SpiceJet to operate only after a daily payment dates back to 2020 when the airline defaulted on airport charges due to weak finances. The airline had announced a net loss of Rs. 934.8 crores (approx. $120 million) in 2019-20 and asked AAI for more time to work out the modalities to pay pending dues.
The AAI, however, allowed the airline to continue flying but on the condition that it would have to pay cash before operating flights. Since then, the airline has been on a cash and carry mode, which means that the AAI has withdrawn its credit facility to the carrier and relies on daily payments to allow operations.
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SpiceJet isn’t the only airline in India to have faced this problem. In 2020, Air India, too, was placed on a cash and carry mode by AAI in Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, and Kolkata.
Coincidentally, SpiceJet would later go on to bid for Air India’s purchase, ultimately losing out to the Tata Group in 2021.
Troubles
SpiceJet hasn’t had a particularly good run in the last few months. While the COVID pandemic has been brutal on all airlines, SpiceJet has had its own set of problems. It was recently involved in several court cases over non-payment of dues to aerospace companies.
India’s aviation regulator also issued the airline a show-cause notice for improper training of its crew for the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Then last month, a passenger tweet brought the focus on some of the carrier’s ill-maintained aircraft, prompting the DGCA to carry out a thorough check on all airlines in the country, particularly the ones with old airplanes.
Hopefully, for SpiceJet, this morning’s incident was a one-off.
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Source: Business Standard