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The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) deregistered three SpiceJet aircraft on Thursday, according to sources. This development comes five days after their lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) asked the aviation regulator for the deregistration, sources said.
According to news agency PTI report, the sources further stated that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is expected to deregister another SpiceJet aircraft on Friday, acceding to the request put forward by Irish lessor company Alterna aircraft on August 1. It is important to note that DAE and Alterna had put in the irrevocable deregistration and export request authorisation (IDERA) requests to deregister the four planes.
The IDERA request is usually filed by a lessor when its negotiation with the airline regarding payment of dues fails, the PTI report said. While SpiceJet did not issue any fresh statement on Thursday, it issued a statement on the DAE's action earlier this week, stating, “SpiceJet plans to replace all its older Boeing aircraft with the new Max model in a phased manner. Between now and next calendar year, SpiceJet will induct around 20 new Max planes into its fleet. As part of this modernisation plan, we are returning older aircraft in a phased manner including these three aircraft."
These returns have been planned and will not have any impact on our operations, it had noted. The airline stated, “SpiceJet has already returned 12 old Boeing aircraft to lessors in the last calendar year. We have 13 Max aircraft in our fleet and the new inductions would begin from October 2022." Meanwhile, regarding Alterna's action, the airline stated earlier this week said the aircraft is part of early termination agreement executed with the lessor way back in November 2021.
Notably, SpiceJet has reportedly been making losses for the last four years, incurring net losses worth ₹316 crore, ₹934 crore and ₹998 crore in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. While in the April-December period of 2021, the airline posted a net loss of ₹1,248 crore. The airline is yet to declare results for January-March period of 2022, as per report.
(With inputs from PTI)