India's SpiceJet adds makeshift Q400 freighters

Auditor S.R. Batliboi & Associates LLP has cast doubt over SpiceJet's status as a going concern given the erosion of the airline's net worth over the last two financial years.

"The Company has accumulated losses and its net worth has been fully eroded, the Company has incurred a net loss during the current and previous year and, the Company’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets as at the balance sheet date. These conditions (...) indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern," the auditors wrote in a note on the carrier's financial statement for the year ended March 31, 2020.

From April 2019 to March 2020, SpiceJet lost INR9.35 billion rupees (USD125 million). In its last financial quarter alone, started on January 1 through the end of March 2020, the airline lost INR8.07 billion (USD107.9 million).

During the financial year ended on March 31, 2019, the carrier's net loss stood at INR3.16 billion (USD42.2 million at the current rate).

The...

SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int'l) has confirmed it will operate its first-ever widebody flight on August 1, 2020, from Amsterdam Schiphol via Bangalore Int'l to Hyderabad Int'l, using an A330-900 wet-leased from Hi Fly (5K, Beja).

The carrier said via its official Twitter account that the flight would operate as a repatriation charter. However, SpiceJet has recently secured designations to launch scheduled services to the United States and the United Kingdom and hopes to do so once travel restrictions are reduced.

CS-TKY (msn 1929), a one-year-old Airbus widebody, has already been used extensively to operate COVID-related charters, although so far it has only been deployed under Hi Fly's own code. The contract with SpiceJet will be the aircraft's first wet-lease deployment during the pandemic.

"This A330-900 can do India-US nonstop. We plan to utilise it initially for charters to wherever the demand is for. Later it may be used for schedule flights under the travel bubbles India is forming with some countries," an airline source told the Times of...

SpiceJet (SG, Delhi Int'l) has been designated to operate scheduled flights from India to each of the United States and the United Kingdom under the terms of India's bilateral air services agreements with the two countries.

A series of stock market filings confirmed only that the LCC had been granted the rights but did not disclose any further details regarding plans as to when service may start. Earlier in July, Indian media reported that by the end of the month, SpiceJet would wet-lease up to three A330s from Oman Air (WY, Muscat) to operate flights to London Heathrow. However, the airline has yet to confirm this let alone start selling tickets for the route.

Following the collapse of Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int'l), Air India (AI, Mumbai Int'l) is the only Indian airline connecting the country with either the UK or the US. However, Vistara (UK, Delhi Int'l) is also planning to launch services to London Gatwick using its B787-9s. IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi...

IndiGo Airlines (6E, Delhi Int'l) is planning to venture into the widebody market, although initially only through a wet-lease contract for three A330 aircraft, The Economic Times has reported citing unnamed but "well informed" sources.

The Indian low-cost carrier mulled over launching own long-haul services in the past but ultimately decided against adding widebody aircraft to avoid complexity.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic created a new opportunity for the airline as many passengers will either prefer or for reasons related to border closures have to travel directly between India and key long-haul markets, as opposed to connecting via major hubs in the Middle East or South-East Asia.

The timeline for the launch of the wet-lease contract and the operating airline were not identified. IndiGo Airlines did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment. The LCC would most likely target London as its first destination for the A330.

To date, IndiGo Airlines was adamant that its A321-200NX - of which it operates 18 and has a further 380 on firm order from Airbus -...