Achi news desk-
New Delhi1 day ago
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Cash-strapped airline SpiceJet has decided to reduce its weekly flight operations by 26% in the upcoming summer schedule. According to the company, due to a shortage of pilots and an increase in aircraft lease prices, there is difficulty in increasing flight operations.
The summer timetable for 2024 will start on 31 March and end on 26 October. During this period, the airline will operate only 1,657 flights compared to 2,240 flights in the current winter schedule.
Earlier, in the summer 2023 schedule, the company had applied for 2,132 planned flights, which was around 30% less than the same period a year ago ie 2022.
Fewer flights have operated than planned
According to a company official, despite applying for more flights in last winter’s schedule, the airline could not use the airport slots ie could not operate all the planned flights. Therefore, in order to avoid this, it was decided to reduce the planned flights this time.
Today ie Friday (22 March) shares of SpiceJet fell by 1.14% and closed at Rs 58.75. The current market value of the company is Rs 4.58 thousand crore.
DGCA had ordered a 50% reduction in scheduled operations.
Last year, between July 5 and July 19, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had ordered the airline to reduce flights by 50% after about 8 incidents of technical faults were reported in many of the company’s flights.
SpiceJet has a fleet of 33 operational flights
SpiceJet has a fleet of 33 operational flights. She has eight wet lace planes. The airline currently has around 400 pilots on its payroll. If the new FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limit) norm is implemented from June, 60 to 90 additional pilots will be required to operate the same number of flights.
The company will make 1,400 workers redundant
Earlier on February 12, the company had informed about the plan to lay off 10-15% of its total workforce ie around 1,400 employees as part of the cost cutting process. Then, a spokesperson for SpiceJet had said, ‘SpiceJet has implemented a number of measures following the recent infusion of the fund as part of our transformation and cost cutting strategy.
It aims to achieve profitable growth and position itself to take advantage of opportunities in the Indian aviation industry. Through this initiative, we expect annual savings of up to Rs 100 crore.
Read the news here too…
SpiceJet to lay off 1400 employees: Planning for cost cutting, the airline is expected to save ₹ 100 crore annually from layoffs
Cash-strapped SpiceJet Airlines plans to lay off 10-15% of its total workforce ie around 1,400 employees as part of its cost-cutting process. The airline has given this information on Monday (February 12). Click here to read the full news…
