SpiceJet awaits proposed investment of Rs 1,500 crore

SpiceJet, the home-grown budget carrier, continues to run its operations on the cash generated by the advanced bookings with no "indication" of the proposed investment of Rs 1,500 crore from the new promoter having come in, sources said on Wednesday.

The private sector airline, meanwhile, announced enhanced services both on the domestic and international routes as well as suspension of its flights from six cities during the summer schedule, which commences from March-end.

The Ministry has also not received any fresh communication from SpiceJet - which is in the process of change in management control - on its revival plan.

"No indication of money put in by Ajay Singh and co... Spicejet using cash generated from advance bookings for day-to-day operations," official sources said.

Last week, SpiceJet had said the first tranche of recapitalisation would happen "very soon".

"We would have wished that the money would have come... (But) can money come without ownership change?," sources said.

SpiceJet has launched a series of low fare offers, starting this January, with the latest being "cheaper-than-train-fare", in which the airline offered fares as low as Rs 599 for domestic travel and Rs 3,499 for international travel on February 11.

These schemes have helped the airline not only in filling the additional seats in the lean travel period but also in generating cash.

The SpiceJet board, in late January, had approved transfer of Maran family's entire 58.46 per cent existing stake to Singh, while the company would raise Rs 1,500 crore through issuance of fresh securities.

The proposed deal, which has been cleared by the Civil Aviation Ministry, is awaiting certain clearances, including from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

Sources also said that the civil aviation ministry will not "interfere" with whatever decision Sebi takes on the deal.

Meanwhile, in the summer schedule, SpiceJet will be introducing two new daily flights to Dubai from Amritsar and Mangalore.

These flights are in addition to the five existing daily operations already to Dubai from Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, and Madurai, taking SpiceJet's service to Dubai to seven flights daily, the airline said.

The airline will add a new flight between Chennai and Vijayawada besides adding frequencies to a number of domestic routes, it said.

SpiceJet is also suspending service to six cities - Aurangabad, Belgaum, Indore, Lucknow, Surat and Trivandrum, it said, adding these flights could resume later on.