SpiceJet owes Rs 200 cr to airports, govt

Airline says can't discuss dues publicly, denies grounding of planes

SpiceJet owes about Rs 200 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and various tax authorities as adverse operating environment has impacted its performance. The dues include Rs 110 crore outstanding to AAI, disclosed by the civil aviation ministry last week.

The matter came to light after anxious airline employees wrote to the management last week about not receiving TDS (tax deducted at source) certificates for the purpose of filing tax returns. On Tuesday, SpiceJet said it could not discuss the issue about pending dues as it is “privileged and confidential information”. Notably, the airline’s auditor had last year observed delays in depositing of tax dues.

In their audit report for FY13, S R Batliboi & Associates, which audited the airline’s accounts, said SpiceJet was not regularly depositing “undisputed statutory dues” including TDS, value-added tax and service tax, and that there have been delays in a large number of cases.

SpiceJet posted an annual loss of Rs 1,000 crore in FY14 and has launched a series of discount offers to tide over the cash-flow problem. The airline has 52 aircraft fleet comprising Boeing 737s and Bombardier Q-400s. Its aircraft are on the radar of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which recently ordered an engineering check on the SpiceJet fleet following instances of aircraft getting grounded due to inadequate spare parts inventory. “We, like other airlines, are subject to regular and ongoing audits by DGCA from time to time and we are fully compliant with every safety regulation,’’ said a SpiceJet spokesperson. The airline said all its planes were fully airworthy and operational except three aircraft - a Boeing 737 and a Q400 are undergoing scheduled maintenance check, and a Q400 plane is under maintenance following a bird hit incidence.

“None of the planes is grounded for lack of spares. Our fleet utilisation is about 12 hours for Boeing and will increase to 13 hours as we add new flights. The utilisation of Q400 planes is slightly less due to the different nature of their mission,’’ the spokesperson added.

Will improve customer-handling procedure: SpiceJet

SpiceJet has said it will make changes in its customer handling procedure in event of flight delays. This comes in the wake of a DGCA direction to the airline to refund all passengers whose Mumbai-Delhi flight was delayed by five hours. “Budget airlines are unable to provide food for everyone on board on short notice due to logistical reasons. We only carry limited food on board. We typically serve the refreshments in the airport terminal during delays. The aircraft had to be eventually swapped and refreshments were offered to passengers, once the swapped aircraft took off. We had the new aircraft catered in view of the delay. We acknowledge that this occurred after the two-hour limit specified by the regulations, and we will adjust our processes for handling such situations and in cooperation with the DGCA,” the airline said.