SpiceJet's Mumbai-Kandla flight aborts take off as caution alert lights up

A SpiceJet aircraft heading to Kandla in Gujarat safely aborted take off on the Mumbai airport's runway on Thursday as the caution alert lit up, the airline said on Thursday.

This is at least the ninth incident of technical malfunction on a SpiceJet aircraft in the last 40 days.

On Thursday's incident, SpiceJet said, "A SpiceJet Q400 aircraft scheduled to operate from Mumbai to Kandla rejected take off owing to illumination of a caution alert. Crew acted as per the SOP (standard operating procedure)."

"There was no safety scare. The aircraft returned back to bay and all passengers and crew safely deboarded," it mentioned.

28/07/22 PTI/Telegraph

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DGCA puts SpiceJet under 'enhanced surveillance', orders airline to operate half of allowed flights this summer

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday ordered SpiceJet to operate a truncated schedule — half of the allowed fights — this summer. The airline has also been put under "enhanced surveillance” for 8 weeks.

The cash-strapped airline will be allowed to scale up operations only after proving that it has “sufficient, technical support and financial resource to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity.”

The aviation regulator issued an interim order on Wednesday on the showcase notice it had issued to the airline on July 5 and after receiving its comments on the same within the given three weeks.

SpiceJet anyway has been operating about 300 flights daily in past few weeks which is half of the approved weekly 4,100-odd flights. So this order may have no impact on the airline operationally, apart from planes that are being subjected to stricter checks.

"We are not cancelling a single flight due to this order," said airline sources.

All financially strained airlines have cut down on the number of flights as domestic traffic has fallen sharply after record high jet fuel prices and record low value of rupee forced fare hikes. This has led to a fall in the number of daily domestic flyers to below 3 lakh compared to pre-Covid level of about 4.2 lakh.

“In view of findings of various spot checks, inspections and the reply to the show cause notice for continued sustenance of safe and reliable air transport service, the number of departures of SpiceJet are hereby restricted to 50% of the number of departures approved under summer schedule of eight weeks from (July 27, 2022).… Any increase in the number of departures beyond 50% of the number of departures approved under summer schedule 2022, during this period, shall be subject to the airline demonstrating to the satisfaction of DGCA that it has sufficient technical support and financial resource to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity,” the order issued by DGCA joint DG Maneesh Kumar said.

27/07/22 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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10 SpiceJet planes grounded; no major safety violation: Govt

Amid repeated incidents of malfunctions involving budget airline SpiceJet Ltd, the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) grounded 10 of its aircraft after conducting a total of 53 spot checks and also issued a show-cause notice on July 6. The airline was given three weeks to submit its response.

The civil aviation ministry has said in Parliament that during its probe, the aviation regulator carried out a total of 53 spot checks on 48 aircraft between July 9 and July 13, during which “no major safety violation” was found.

"However, as a safety measure, DGCA ordered M/s Spicejet to use certain identified aircraft (10) for operations only after confirming to DGCA that all reported defects/malfunctions are rectified," MoS in the civil aviation ministry, General V.K. Singh (retd.) says in a reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 25.

SpiceJet says this comes as a major "vindication" for the airline, and that it had rectified the malfunctions identified in 10 planes by the DGCA and all these 10 aircraft are back in operation. "The rectification had been done immediately after the DGCA observation," it adds.

The minister informs Parliament that in 2022, apart from SpiceJet, the DGCA had carried out the regulatory audit of Vistara, Bluedart, and IndiGo, too. In addition, a special safety audit of Alliance Air was also carried out, he adds.

On the recent incidents of malfunctions in SpiceJet, the minister says these were analysed and an explanation was sought from Spicejet. "There has been no delay in issuing the notice," he adds.

As per the DGCA, its financial assessment of Spicejet carried out in September 2021 revealed the airline is operating on "cash and carry" and suppliers were not being paid on regular basis, which led to a shortage of spares and frequent invoking of MELs (minimum equipment lists) releases.

MEL allows an aircraft to fly even if something is broken but only under specific conditions and for a specific period before the problem is fixed.

The DGCA's safety oversight process involves a series of successive follow-up steps, which include the communication of findings to the airlines for taking corrective action, review of corrective action taken by them or initiating enforcement action, consisting of warning, suspension, cancellation, and imposition of financial penalty.

Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet, says the airline has been running safe flight operations for 17 years. "I am glad these findings and assessment are of none other than the DGCA, India’s topmost aviation safety agency and regulator,” he adds.

The Gurugram-based SpiceJet operates a fleet of Boeing 737s, Bombardier Q400s and freighters. Besides, the DGCA has also started a two-month special audit of domestic airlines to probe continuous technical malfunctions and other issues.

26/07/22 Fortune India

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DGCA finds no safety violation after spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft: Government

The minister of state for civil aviation, V K Singh, on Monday informed that DGCA did not find any major safety violations after it conducted 53 spot checks on 48 SpiceJet aircraft between July 9 and July 13.

"However, as a safety measure, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered SpiceJet to use certain identified aircraft (10) for operations only after confirming to the regulator that all reported defects/malfunctions are rectified," reported PTI citing Singh.

SpiceJet planes were involved in at least eight technical malfunction incidents in the 18-day period starting June 19, following which the DGCA had on July 6 issued a show-cause notice to the airline, stating that "poor internal safety oversight" and "inadequate maintenance actions" have resulted in degradation of safety margins.

Just three days after issuing the notice, the regulator started conducting spot checks on SpiceJet planes, Singh stated. The spot checks were completed on July 13.

"A total of 53 spot checks were carried out on 48 aircraft which did not find any major significant finding or safety violation," he mentioned.

The DGCA's safety oversight process involves series of successive follow up steps which includes communication of observations or findings to the airlines for taking corrective action, review of corrective action taken by the airlines for taking a decision, and initiating enforcement action consisting of warning, suspension, cancellation or imposition of financial penalty to the person or the airline involved, he noted.

In its notice to SpiceJet on July 6, the regulator had said that the airline has failed to "establish safe, efficient and reliable air services" under the the Aircraft Rules, 1937.

"The review (of the incidents) transpires that poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions (as most of the incidents were related to either component failure or system-related failure) have resulted in degradation of the safety margins," the notice added.

The regulator gave airline three weeks to respond to the notice.

25/07/22 Economic Times

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Rectified defects identified in 10 aircrafts, says Spicejet

New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet said that it rectified the defects and malfunctions identified in 10 planes by the DGCA and all these ten aircraft are back in operation. The rectification had been done immediately after the DGCA observation.

"A series of spot checks were carried out recently on all operating aircraft of M/s Spicejet from 9th July 2022 to 13th July 2022. A total of 53 spot checks were carried out on 48 aircraft which did not find any major significant finding or safety violation," the aviation ministry told Rajya Sabha in a reply to a question.

The ministry further informed Parliament that DGCA had carried out the regulatory audit of three scheduled airlines, including SpiceJet as per published Annual Surveillance Programme (ASP) 2022.

The civil aviation ministry also informed Parliament that the crew of the SpiceJet flight that was diverted to Karachi on July 5 did not declare emergency nor was there any fuel leak in the aircraft.

In reply to a separate question on a flight diversion to Karachi, the ministry said, "Cabin crew did not declare emergency. Post landing check and inspection at Karachi did not reveal fuel leak."

"I am happy that the findings of the various checks carried out by the DGCA on our fleet have been made public by the government. SpiceJet has been running a safe airline for 17 years and this is a vindication of not only our stand but the love and trust shown by our passengers who have made SpiceJet the country's most popular airline flying with the highest loads for the past seven years.

26/07/22 IANS/Daijiworld

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Aircraft absolutely safe, DGCA found no safety violation: SpiceJet

SpiceJet has said that a series of spot checks by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found no “major significant finding or safety violation” in its fleet, said the airline, quoting the aviation safety regulator. 

The airline added that the regulator informed the Rajya Sabha on July 25, “A series of spot checks were carried out recently on all operating aircraft of M/s Spicejet from 9th July 2022 to 13th July 2022. A total of 53 spot checks were carried out on 48 aircraft which did not find any major significant finding or safety violation.”

The airline called this a “major vindication” for SpiceJet. It said that the Civil Aviation Ministry also informed the Parliament that the crew of the SpiceJet flight that was diverted to Karachi on July 5 did not declare an emergency nor was there any fuel leak in the aircraft. In reply to a separate question, SpiceJet said,  “Cabin crew did not declare an emergency. Post landing check and inspection at Karachi did not reveal a fuel leak.”

It added that the defects and malfunctions identified in 10 planes by the DGCA have also been rectified and are back in action. SpiceJet said that the rectification was done immediately after the DGCA observation. 

DGCA had informed the Parliament that it carried out the regulatory audit of the airline, as per the Annual Surveillance Programme (ASP) 2022, it said. 

Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, said, “SpiceJet has been running a safe airline for 17 years and this is a vindication of not only our stand but the love and trust shown by our passengers who have made SpiceJet the country’s most popular airline flying with the highest loads for the past seven years.”

26/07/22 Business Today

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Rumour mills agog as Spicejet sits over March-end results

New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet with a fleet size of 95 planes reported a net profit of Rs 23.28 crore in the quarter ended December in FY2022.

But industry sources said that the Covid pandemic hit the aviation sector badly and SpiceJet too is not untouched by the financial stress.

While the airline has not come out with its Q4 FY2022 results, some industry sources claimed that when announced, the results will truly disclose its financial condition.

SpiceJet planes recorded passenger load factor or occupancy of 84.1 per cent in June when it had a market share of 9.5 per cent.

While the airline has claimed that the March results are delayed due to a ransomware attack on its system, industry sources said the airline is under financial stress.

Industry sources and experts said that fleet deployment and oversight is very crucial in the aviation sector. During the Covid pandemic, most of the aircraft were lying idle and many airlines resorted to cost-cutting and retrenchment of employees to cope with the financial crisis.

Now, there is a sudden surge in demand which the airlines are finding difficult to manage, leading to a rising number of technical malfunctions.

Jitender Bhargava, former Executive Director of Air India, said that given the current situation, it is very difficult to reach the breakeven point for many airlines in the country.

23/07/22 IANS/Siasat

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Vistara nearly catches up with SpiceJet in terms of market share

The market share of Indian airlines in the domestic aviation sector has seen a shift over the last one year as the competition has heated up in a scenario of less demand and more supply.

While the domestic civil aviation traffic crossed the pre-pandemic levels of around 4 lakh daily air passengers, the numbers have not been able to hold. Currently, the traffic is holding at around 70 to 75 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.

In this background, the airlines in India, whether full-service or low-cost carriers, have tried to engage as many passengers as possible in order to develop a decent revenue environment.

In terms of fleet size among Indian airlines, IndiGo leads with 283 airplanes, followed by Air India at 116 aircraft, SpiceJet at 87 aircraft, GoFIRST at 57 planes, Vistara at 56 aircraft, AirAsia India at 28 planes and Alliance Air at 19 aircraft.

Vistara, the joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata Group, has emerged as an outperformer in the race as its market share has risen to 9.4 percent in June as compared to 8.6 percent in May 2022 and 7.2 percent in June 2021. This is Vistara’s second-best performance as the highest market share for the airline was at 9.7 percent, which was secured in February 2022.

SpiceJet, which witnessed a spike in technical snags over the last two months, saw a drop in market share in June to 9.5 percent from 10 percent in May. On a yearly comparison, the airline had a market share of 9 percent in June 2021.

IndiGo, the largest Indian carrier, has shown an increase in its market share in June at 56.9 percent, up from 55.6 percent in May 2022 and also rising on year from 54.7 percent in June 2021.

For the other Tata airline, Air India, the ride has been rather bumpy in terms of market share. While the airline has seen a bit of an increase in market share from 7.2 percent in May to 7.5 percent in June, but the drop has been significant as compared to 10.2 percent in January 2022 and 10.6 percent as of December 2021.

22/07/22 Anu Sharma/CNBC TV18

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Supreme Court asks Credit Suisse to rethink decision to allow SpiceJet to withdraw $5-million bank guarantee

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Credit Suisse AG to rethink its decision to allow low-cost carrier SpiceJet to withdraw its $5-million bank guarantee, which is in custody of the Madras High Court.

The low-cost carrier had arrived at an “in-principle commercial settlement” with the Switzerland-based investment banking company in the $24-million dispute between the two parties.

While both SpiceJet and Credit Suisse asked a bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana to take on record the consent terms, which was executed on May 23, towards settlement of their disputes, the airline also sought a direction to the HC to release its bank guarantee, saying that the collateral given for the guarantee is required to pay the dues as per the settlement terms.

However, the CJI asked Credit Suisse counsel Liz Mathew to rethink its stand and said the apex court will not intervene later in case SpiceJet refused to pay up after withdrawal of the bank guarantee. It also posted the matter for further hearing next week.

The apex court had earlier asked SpiceJet to resolve its dispute with Credit Suisse AG and had stayed the HC’s order that allowed a winding up of the low-cost airline.

SpiceJet had challenged the HC order of January 11, allowing the winding-up petition filed by Credit Suisse against the company for default of about $24 million. The HC had also directed the official liquidator to take over the assets of SpiceJet.

The Swiss company had filed a winding-up case against the airline for failing to honour some invoices raised for over $24 million towards payment of maintenance, repairing, and overhauling of the aircraft engines and components in 2013. However, the apex court, on Spicejet’s appeal, had put the HC order on hold and asked the airline to settle the case with Credit Suisse.

The airline had in November 2011 entered into a 10-year contract for servicing of aircraft with Swiss engine maintenance services firm SRT Technics, which, in turn, sold its right to receive payments based on the contract to Credit Suisse in September 2012.

20/07/22 Indu Bhan/Financial Express

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SpiceJet launches 26 new domestic flights

SpiceJet on Tuesday announced the launch of 26 new domestic flights. The airline will connect Nashik with Hyderabad and Delhi with Khajuraho under the UDAN scheme with new and additional flights starting July 22, 2022.

The airline will be introducing direct flights to Nashik from Delhi, Hyderabad to Jammu, Mumbai to Guwahati, Jharsuguda & Madurai, Varanasi to Ahmedabad and Kolkata to Jabalpur.

The airline will be increasing the frequency of flights between Ahmedabad-Jaipur, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Dharamshala and Amritsar-Ahmedabad.

Boeing 737 and Q400 aircraft will be deployed on these routes, the company said.

After a spate of incidents, SpiceJet is under regulatory scanner right now. On July 6, the DGCA issued a show-cause notice to SpiceJet following at least eight incidents of technical malfunction in its aircraft since June 19. The DGCA is currently investigating all these incidents.

19/07/22 Economic Times

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SpiceJet flight from Dubai to Pune leaves behind luggage of more than 50 flyers

Pune:  A number of flyers, who landed in the city from Dubai on the SpiceJet SG52 flight on Thursday, were in the soup after they found out that their luggage did not arrive with them.

A flyer, who is visiting her brother in Ravet, was awaiting some communication from the airline on her luggage but was disappointed when no one conveyed them anything on the whereabouts of the luggage till Friday evening.

Manoj Nair, the flyer’s brother, said, “The flight landed in Pune at 6am on Thursday. The airline had assured us they would send us the luggage on Friday. It is already 5.30pm now and my sister’s bag is yet to arrive”.

“She will be returning to Dubai on Saturday evening. Without her luggage, she is adjusting with the clothes of my wife. The airline did not carry the luggage of more than 50 flyers. We have been calling them continuously but they aren’t picking up. If I call from an unknown number, they are picking up and saying they are working on it,” Nair added.

There are some flyers who are in Pune on business trips and without proper clothes, they were forced to buy new ones. “Such incidents are frustrating. The Thursday flight also landed on Friday early morning but I am yet to get any calls from the airline. I have a flight to Delhi on Saturday early morning and the stress on whether I will be able to get my baggage by then is too much to handle,” said another flyer.

A SpiceJet spokesperson on Friday evening said, “Most of the bags have been delivered by the Friday morning flight. The remaining bags of seven passengers will arrive in the Saturday early morning flight. According to global industry practices, baggages are being delivered within 48 hours.”

16/07/22 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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No 'unusual sick reporting', all pilots have reported for duty: SpiceJet

SpiceJet clarified that there is no "unusual sick reporting" on Thursday and all pilots have reported for duty, claiming that a concerted misinformation campaign is being run against the airline. The clarification comes after some SpiceJet pilots circulated a message that the airline's captains and first officers will be going on sick leave on Thursday to protest against their low salaries, sources said.

A significant section of aircraft maintenance technicians of IndiGo and Go First went on sick leave during the last one week to protest against their low salaries. However, the flight operations of IndiGo and Go First have not been affected.

In a statement, SpiceJet said a concerted misinformation campaign is being run against the airline claiming that some pilots reported sick on Thursday.

"This information is wrong, baseless and is strongly denied. There is no unusual sick reporting today and all pilots have reported for duty. All our flights have departed as per schedule," the statement said.

The airline urged everyone not to be misled by fake news and inadvertently become a party to the misinformation campaign being spread by people with vested interests to damage its reputation and create hindrances to an essential service.

14/07/22 Economic Times

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Now, some SpiceJet pilots give call for ‘mass sick leave’

New Delhi: A section of SpiceJet pilots have given a call for a "mass sick leave" on July 14 to protest against pay cuts at the airline in the past two years.

Pilot sources said that they were unhappy over massive pay cuts the airline continued to impose which amounted to a deduction equivalent of "70%" of their pre-pandemic salary. Pilots also claim that the airline has been deducting contributions towards employee's provident fund and tax deducted at source but was not depositing them with the Employee's Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and Income Tax department. Pilots claim provident fund lapses since 2020.

Sources also said that there was anger over several "arbitrary" terminations and forced resignation of pilots at the airline.

Employee sources said that nearly 43 first officers and pilots had reported sick for July 14. The airline has nearly 800 pilots. A SpiceJet spokesperson though denied that pilots had reported sick. It remains to be seen whether this will impact the airline's flights across its network which covers over 50 destinations.

The uproar among pilots follows a rap from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation last week which has served a show-cause on the airline underlining that the airline's weak financial status was resulting in its failure to carry out maintenance and procuring spare parts from vendors resulting in "degraded" safety leading to several mid-air incidents and an accident since April.

14/07/22 Jagriti Chandra/The Hindu

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3 in 4 fliers concerned about flight safety, 44% avoiding SpiceJet after recent mishaps: Survey

New Delhi: At least 44 percent of fliers who travel on domestic airlines are currently avoiding taking a Spicejet flight while 21 percent each are giving Air India and Indigo a pass after a spate of mishaps in a span of less than 20 days. Travelers are concerned that airlines may be cutting corners on aircraft maintenance, thereby putting passenger safety at risk, revealed a survey by Localcircles.

On July 5, three aircraft belonging to different airlines showed up to be not airworthy. While IndiGo and Vistara airlines reported smoke and engine issues during their flight operations, one SpiceJet freighter plane had technical malfunction leading to the cancellation of a flight to China. In the case of SpiceJet, there have been eight instances of technical malfunction in recent times.

An engine of a Vistara aircraft on way from Bangkok failed after it landed at the Delhi airport last week but all passengers disembarked safely. The same day, the cabin crew of an IndiGo's Raipur-Indore flight observed smoke in the plane after it landed at its destination. And aviation regulator DGCA issued a show-cause notice Wednesday to SpiceJet after it reported eight technical malfunction incidents involving its planes over the last 18 days, flagging safety oversight, inadequate maintenance and payment-related shortage of spares.

At least 46 percent domestic fliers surveyed believe the financial situation of airlines is the key cause for safety incidents while 33 percent domestic fliers surveyed believe the key cause is weak internal/external audit systems and regulatory oversight.

LocalCircles got responses from over 45,000 domestic air travellers located in 302 districts of India.

At least 3 in 4 Indian fliers surveyed said they are concerned about flight safety while flying while 35 percent said they were only concerned if they were undertaking travel via a select few airlines.

Despite having rules in place, India compares poorly with many of the developing countries when it comes to safe air travel. One of the principal reasons is the fast increase in the number of airports and aircrafts over the last several years barring during the pandemic, which hit the civil aviation sector in India, similar to the trends seen globally.

14/07/22 Sunainaa Chadha/Times of India

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SpiceJet's Dubai-Amritsar flight delayed; over 50 passengers lose luggage

Amritsar: SpiceJet's Dubai-Amritsar flight was delayed by two hours on Thursday.

However, the misery of the passengers did not end here as the passengers of SpiceJet's flight no. SG56 lost their luggage after arriving at the airport. According to sources, the bags of at least 50 passengers were missing which led to a ruckus at Amritsar airport.

The SG56 flight from Dubai to Amritsar took off late. Usually, this flight takes off at 10.45 p.m. Dubai time, however on Wednesday night, it departed at 12.41 p.m. Due to this, the flight arrived two hours later than scheduled.

The SpiceJet flight reached Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Amritsar at 5.07 am instead of 3.20 am.

Manav Bansal, a passenger who arrived in Amritsar from Dubai, stated that the "flight was delayed to luggage issues." However, when they reached Amritsar, half of the passengers' luggage was missing.

Meanwhile, sources say that the flight was delayed due to a technical issue and took off late as authorities conducted an inspection before the departure.

14/05/22 Shgun S/PTC News

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Pilots seethe over SpiceJet’s provident fund deposit lapses

At a time when low-cost carrier SpiceJet is under the Director General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) scanner for degradation of safety standards due to a financial crunch, its pilots are furious over the airline’s failure to deposit their provident fund since 2020 despite continuing pay cuts.

Sources among pilots said the airline has failed to pay employees’ and employers’ contributions towards the provident fund scheme for pilots since April 2020, and for first officers (junior pilots) since September 2021. In some cases, the payments have been delayed by several months. The Hindu has reviewed the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) passbook of some of these employees.

The airline rejected the allegations in response to a query from The Hindu. “The information that PF hasn’t been deposited since 2020 is wrong and is strongly denied. There have been certain deferrals on discharging of payments but no default. The company has been actively paying dues and clearing the outstanding,” the SpiceJet spokesperson said in response to a query from The Hindu.

“We have written to the management, seeking an explanation for our unpaid provident fund, but they haven’t provided an answer,” a pilot said on condition of anonymity. “PF (provident fund) contribution is being deducted from our salaries but not being transferred to our EPFO account. Similary, tax deducted at source is also being deducted from our salaries, but it hasn’t been deposited,” a pilot said.

These claims were corroborated by several other pilots. Various pilots said that in the past few months, the airline has also stopped providing them salary slips so that they don’t know the sums deducted from their salaries.

Under the EPFO’s rules, if an employer fails to deposit PF for more than six months, there can be a penalty of ₹50,000 or imprisonment of up to three years. “The penalty of ₹50,000 is for every employee whose PF is delayed, but the court decides the quantum of penalty and imprisonment because this becomes a class action suit when a sizeable number of employees are impacted,” labour rights expert Rahul Sapkal said.

The DGCA served a show-cause notice to the airline over a spate of safety-related incidents on several of its flights, which the regulator said was also due to the airline’s inability to secure spare parts for maintenance because of payment issues.

The pilots are also seething with anger over steep pay-cuts imposed by the airline that continue to be in place despite the revival in passenger demand and the airline returning to pre-pandemic levels in terms of flights. There is industry-wide anger over salary cuts, particularly because everyone received a fraction of their pre-Covid salaries during the pandemic.

13/07/22 Jagriti Chandra/The Hindu

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SpiceJet yet to receive approval from lenders for hiving off cargo unit

Even as Ajay Singh plans to hive off SpiceJet’s cargo business SpiceXperess by August, it is yet to receive approvals from its lenders. SpiceJet applied for the No Objection Certificate (NOC) over six months ago. However, sources said lenders do not seem to have clarity on the hive-off. “We have not been given any clarity yet. We do not see the hive off being completed by August,” said a banking source.

According to multiple sources, SpiceJet has received conditional approval only from YES Bank; however, it has not received approval from any of its other lenders. 

13/07/22 Business Line

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Cheating case filed against SpiceJet MD Ajay Singh, others in Gurugram

A case of fraud has been registered against SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh and others for allegedly cheating a Gurugram resident by delivering fake share certificates to him.

Complainant Amit Arora, a resident of the Magnolias, Golf Links, Golf Course Road, Gurugram, stated in his police complaint that Singh had delivered a fake depository instruction slip (DIS) of 10 lakh shares for services provided to him.

In connection with the incident, a case under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at the Sushant Lok police station on July 7.

The Complainant is in the business of providing non-aeronautical services including airport retail and hospitality services.

Arora told the police that in 2015, the erstwhile promoters of Spicejet i.e. Kalanithi Maran and Kal Airways Private Limited entered into a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement with the accused Ajay Singh wherein their entire shareholding was transferred to him.

"Singh told me to take over the company as it was in a dire financial situation in terms of fuel charges with various oil companies, pending statutory dues, air fleet parking charges, salaries and other vendor payments, etc. To survive, they said, company required a complete overhaul and financial restructuring," Arora told the police.

In place of the same, Singh promised to transfer 10,00,000 shares to the complainant.

Thereafter, the complainant worked in good faith and delivered his services.

In October 2016, the complainant requested Singh to transfer shares as had promised to him.

Instead of transferring shares, Singh provided a DIS. Singh represented that to deposit such slip with his depository participant, Global Capital Markets Limited. However, when the complainant's representative went to deposit the said slip, he was informed that it was invalid and outdated.

Thereafter, the complainant approached the accused multiple times and sought personal appointments to seek fresh depository instruction slips.

The complainant said, Ajay Singh, on one pretext or the other, refused appointments. He further assured that the complainant should not get worried and soon he would provide fresh depository instructions. The sudden change in stand, from stating that the slips were valid to fresh slips would be provided, was inexplicable. During the entire course of 2017, accused Ajay Singh refused to meet the complainant.

During this, Arora got to know of the other cheating case against Singh. Finding similarities between the two, the complainant then looked into the allegations against Singh and found that it was similar to his matter as well.

The complainant told the police that he conducted inquiries into the arbitration proceedings allegedly pending between Ajay Singh and the erstwhile promoters of SpiceJet.

The complainant found that the arbitration proceedings had awarded in favour of the accused.

The complainant has been further made aware that the erstwhile promoters had filed an appeal against the said arbitral award which is presently pending before the Delhi High Court and that there is no stay on such award or any restriction on the transfer of shares.

The accused has thoroughly misrepresented the complainant. The accused deceived the complainant by providing an invalid slip. He further misled the complainant about the arbitration proceedings pending between him and the erstwhile promoters.

It has now come to the knowledge of the complainant that the accused used an almost identical method to defraud other persons and that about the same, different FIRs already stand registered against the accused in respect of those transactions at PS Greater Kailash, PS Hauz Khas, and at PS Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, Arora told the police.

The complainant urged the police that he has been defrauded and has been caused the wrongful loss by the action of the accused Ajay Singh. The method and manner of cheating and misappropriation, and identification of other perpetrators in this process, are all matters which require a sustained investigation by a specialized agency.

11/07/22 IANS/Business Standard

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SpiceJet aircraft has nose wheel snag in Dubai; flies back after repairs

New Delhi:A SpiceJet Boeing 737 could not operate a return flight from Dubai to India on Monday as an engineer grounded it there due to a reported nose wheel snag. Sources say the B737 (VT-SZK) had safely operated from Mangalore to Dubai on Monday (July 11) and was to fly back to Madurai.

“After landing during walk around inspection, the engineer observed that the nose wheel strut is compressed more than normal and grounded the aircraft. The airline has ferried another aircraft (flow without passengers) from Mumbai to Dubai,” said sources. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is examining this issue.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said: “On July 11, 2022, SpiceJet flight SG23 operating from Dubai to Madurai was delayed due to a last minute technical issue. Alternate aircraft was arranged immediately which brought passengers back to India. Flight delays can happen with any airline. There has been no incident or a safety scare on this flight. After the minor technical issue was resolved, the first aircraft flew back to India as a commercial flight.”

12/07/22 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Mangaluru: Tech snag in Spice Jet flight – City Passengers from Dubai spend night in Kochi airport

Mangaluru: The passengers of Spice Jet flight from Dubai to Mangaluru that took off from Dubai on the night of July 8 faced long ordeal of holding up at Kochi airport. The flight had technical snag and could not land in Mangaluru and flew to Kochi with 189 passengers on board.

The flight took off from Dubai at 5 pm on July 8. As per schedule it had to land at Mangaluru international airport at around 8 pm. Just before landing, the pilot took off again and it was announced that the flight is being taken to Coimbatore for fuel fill up and later to Kochi.

The flight landed at Kochi in the night. Passengers were told that the pilot of the aircraft has finished his duty and another pilot will arrive to take the aircraft. The passengers were asked to rest till then. Though it was said that the flight will take off at 3 am on July 9 but it did not happen.

Finally, the passengers were made to board the aircraft at 8.30 am. However, their ordeal was not over yet. The flight did not take off till 10 am. It was said that the Mangaluru airport has not given clearance. Then the flight landed at Mangaluru international airport at 10.50 am.

Abdul Rehman Jokatte, one of the passengers said, “The reason given was bad weather. However, due to some other technical reasons, the aircraft was taken to Cochin. They did not provide us any facilities or accommodation. We were made to wait at the airport and had to have food at our own cost. Officials of Spice Jet were totally negligent towards the plight of the passengers.”

11/07/22 Daijiworld

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