SpiceJet cancels 300 more flights till 31 January

New Delhi Cash-strapped airline SpiceJet Tuesday said that it will cancel 300 more flights till 31 January 2015. The latest update on the airline’s website states that over 300 flights have been cancelled till 31 January, 2015. Earlier the troubled airline had truncated its operations by cancelling over 1,800 flights till 31 December, 2014. The airline also issued a release in which it clarified that most of the flights cancelled in January were flights that had already been removed from the schedule in November and December. The airline said that a reduction in its fleet had resulted in the flights on being reduced from 345 to 230 in a day. “The schedule will remain at the reduced level until the recapitalization of the airline is completed and aircraft added back to its fleet. Even with the reduced schedule, SpiceJet is scheduled to operate over 7,000 flights in the month of January,” the airline said in the statement. [caption id=“attachment_2024209” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AFP image[/caption]Commenting on the airline’s troubles, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the budget carrier will have to resolve its financial problems on its own and that the government can only be a facilitator in the revival process. “Government is here to be helpful but the SpiceJet problem is its finances which it will have to sort out,” the minister told reporters on the sidelines of State Aviation Ministers’ meet held here to discuss the draft Civil Aviation Policy. Earlier, the government had given a 15 day interim relief to the airline by calling on oil companies and state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) not to collect dues till Dec 31. The airline has so far paid its dues to the oil companies, but it has to provide a Rs 200 crore bank guarantee to AAI by 31 December, failing which the state-run entity has threatened to put it on a cash-and-carry payment mode. Airlines usually pay monthly charges to the airport operators. But under the cash-and-carry mode, they have to make daily payments for operations or every time they use various facilities of the airport, including navigation, luggage handling, parking, housing and landing charges of the aircraft as well as the ticketing counters. with IANS inputs