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SpiceJet resumes operations but uncertainty exists

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Troubled SpiceJet resumed operations on Thursday after Wednesday's chaos as hundreds of passengers cancelled their tickets and shifted to other airlines due to uncertainty plaguing its services.

Till 1800 hours on Thursday, the airline operated 21 of 32 scheduled flights from IGI Airport, where 21 of 38 flights also arrived from other destinations, airport sources said. SpiceJet officials refused to provide any details, claiming that the airline would operate "all 230 flights scheduled to operate for the day".

Despite resumption of its services, the uncertainty over SpiceJet's operations spoilt the dreams of hundreds of people who had bought the airline's tickets to enjoy the upcoming year-end vacations. Large number of travellers went on a spree cancelling SpiceJet tickets, with many of them shifting to other airlines, according to officials of travel portals and agencies. The demand for air tickets generated by SpiceJet's cancellations led domestic ticket prices to skyrocket, with one-way Delhi-Mumbai fares rising by an average of 45% to Rs 14,484 as against Rs 9,995 in December last year.

Similarly, Delhi-Bangalore fares shot up by 57% to Rs 17,570 from Rs 11,189 a year ago, travel agencies and portals said. Amid this turbulence, one of the original promoters of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh, met Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju this afternoon, giving strong indications that Singh, who had exited from the carrier over four years ago, was coming back. The beleaguered budget carrier ran into turbulence yesterday after all its flights were grounded for about 10 hours before it made cash payments to oil companies enabling it to partly resume operations in the evening.

Singh, who had on Wednesday met Civil Aviation Secretary V Somasundaran, refused to speak to reporters after his meeting with the minister. He had on Wednesday  just said that SpiceJet had a "lot of potential". SL Narayanan, CFO of SpiceJet's parent company Sun Group, had told PTI earlier, "We need some breathing time... If we get a reprieve from the banks, Mr (Kalanithi) Maran is ready to give guarantee we can restart the engine. Once the collection starts coming in, we will pay (the dues)." Maran has already invested around Rs 820 crore in the last three years and he has invested whenever the airline has needed money, he had said.

In a statement, the airline announced "resumption of normal operations as of today, with all 230 flights scheduled to operate for the day, and sincerely apologises for the disruptions that occurred and the day before". It also said it is now able to take bookings till March 28 of next year, adding that the "temporary restriction" of 30 days imposed on it in this regard by DGCA has already been removed. Speaking on "large-scale" cancellations of SpiceJet tickets, sources in the travel industry said the airline would have to "regain confidence" of the general public as a majority of those who cancelled tickets were leisure travellers, most of whom cannot postpone their holidays.

The beleaguered carrier had pay to Rs three crore last evening to buy jet fuel for its planes. The airline has total liabilities of Rs 2,000 crore which include dues to the public sector oil firms and the Airports Authority of India. The last time an airline had to stop operations under mounting losses was two years ago when Kingfisher, which had outstanding of around Rs 6,000 crore, shut down.

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