SpiceJet Airlines: Passengers Stranded At Dubai Airport Due To Flight Cancellation Over Payment Issues

Several passengers of SpiceJet reportedly were stranded at the Dubai airport on Wednesday following flight cancellations due to non-payment of dues by the airline to the Dubai airport authorities.

Without elaborating much on the internal matter of non-payment of dues, a SpiceJet spokesperson on Thursday mentioned that around 10 flights from Dubai to India were cancelled due to operational reasons.

"The airline took immediate steps to mitigate the impact by rebooking affected passengers on subsequent flights and providing hotel accommodations," the airline spokesperson said, as per PTI

The spokesperson further added that all its scheduled flights from Dubai are now operating as planned.

SpiceJet Airlines: The monetary crunch

This development came amid SpiceJet's struggle for funds for quite some time now with the airline delaying salaries to its staff and payments to its vendors. Furthermore, the airline also has not yet to deposit the Employee Provident Fund Contributions to its 11,581 staff since January 2022.

Though the airline reported a standalone profit of Rs 119 crore in the January-March quarter of the previous fiscal, for the December quarter of the same year its losses stood at Rs 301.45 crore as against a profit of Rs 106.82 crore in FY23. For full fiscal 2023-24, the airline posted a loss of Rs 409.43 crore against a loss of Rs 1,503 crore in FY23, as per the airline's tax filing records

Besides the financial struggles, the airline is also facing logistical challenges as 18 Boeing 737 and 18 regional jets Q400 and one A340 were on ground, owing to multiple reasons.

SpiceJet has a total of 59 planes in its fleet which include 32 Boeing737 and 24 Q400. Besides, it also has one Airbus 340 and two Airbus A320, which are on wet-lease.