Budget airline SpiceJet was reportedly forced to operate empty planes back from Dubai this week. This came after passengers were denied check-in at the airport due to the carrier's outstanding dues.
A number of passengers bore the consequences of SpiceJet's financial troubles, finding themselves unexpectedly stranded at Dubai airport. The budget airline's failure to pay its outstanding airport dues led to a crisis that disrupted the travel plans of passengers.
The standoff at Dubai airport resulted in SpiceJet cancelling several of its eleven daily flights it operates to Dubai. Consequently, the airline had to operate return flights to India without any passengers on board.
Industry sources told the Hindu that the cancellations were due to delayed payments to ground-handling service provider Dnata, which told SpiceJet that they could either provide passenger facilitation or fuel. To maintain its operational schedule and utilise its fleet efficiently, SpiceJet decided to fly its planes back to India without passengers, the report added.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said the cancellations were "due to operational issues" and affected passengers were accommodated on subsequent SpiceJet flights, on other airlines or provided with a full refund. All scheduled flights from Dubai were now operating as planned, according to the spokesperson.
The current disruption is the latest in a long list of troubles for SpiceJet, which has struggled to fully restore operations despite multiple fundraises over the last year.
Earlier this month, Mumbai International Airport had issued an advisory stating a temporary disruption in SpiceJet's operations. However, the situation was resolved when SpiceJet settled the payment matter with the airport, leading to the withdrawal of the advisory.
There have also been reports of SpiceJet delaying on the salary, provident fund payments, and tax deducted at source payment of its employees for more than a couple of years.
On August 29, aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) decided to place SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance that will entail increased spot checks and night surveillance to ensure safety of the airline's operations.
Based on reports of cancellation of flights and financial stress being experienced by SpiceJet, DGCA said it conducted a special audit of the airline's engineering facilities on August 7 and 8 and certain deficiencies were found during the audit.
In 2023 also, the regulator had placed SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance.
(With agency inputs)
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