DNA Edit: No flight path

Despite being one of the fastest growing sectors in the world, India’s aviation sector and Indian airlines have seen their fair share of troubles regarding the grounding of flights.

While recently flights of IndiGo and GoAir airlines have been grounded by the DGCA due to the fitting of faulty A320 engines on their planes — in fact three IndiGo planes were grounded within 24 hours for this reason —  other airlines too have been grounded by authorities for a number of reasons, the major one of them being debt.

In 2014, SpiceJet was forced to ground its entire fleet for its inability to pay $2.2 billion in fuel bills. Time then seemed up for the now profitable airline who was unable to fly as oil companies refused to fuel the planes till they were paid. Today though SpiceJet is Indian aviation’s success story with a reported market value of Rs 10,588 crores ($ 1.6 billion) in 2017.  Other airlines too have suffered from debt problems the most notable one being Kingfisher.

From having the second largest share in India’s domestic air travel market all of Kingfisher’s planes were grounded in 2012 and the airlines shut shop in 2013 leaving behind estimated debts of $1.4 billion. India’s major banks alone are said to be owed an estimated Rs 7,000 crore.   

Private airlines aside, the debt crisis has engulfed Air India with politicians and bureaucrats working overtime to keep the national carrier afloat. The current government is examining bids for the national carrier with Jet Airways, Air France-KLM said to be among the interested parties. If these bids are successful Air India can, like SpiceJet — shrug off its debts — and ensure that rumours of its grounding are finally silenced.