SpiceJet shares jump more than 4% after airline's announcement to hire up to 2,000 staff of Jet Airways

New Delhi: SpiceJet shares gained over 4 percent on Monday after the company said it plans to hire up to 2,000 staff including pilots and cabin crew of the defunct Jet Airways as the no-frills carrier continues to expand its operations. The company’s scrip rose by 4.18 percent to close at Rs 152.05 on the BSE. During the day, it jumped 7.50 percent to Rs 156.90 — its 52-week high level. As many as 59.39 lakh shares were traded on the BSE during the day. [caption id=“attachment_2328410” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “We have taken a significant number of people from Jet Airways. They were well qualified as professional people. We will continue to take more Jet staff in the times to come. We have taken around 1,100 people so far. Expectation is that we will go up to 2,000 people. It will be pilots, cabin crew, (people) from airport services, security…,” SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh told PTI in an interview in Seoul. The airline has taken at least 22 planes that were earlier used by Jet Airways which temporarily shuttered its operations due to cash crunch in April. Currently, SpiceJet has around 14,000 staff and a fleet of 100 planes. It is the fourth airline after Air India, now defunct Jet Airways and IndiGo to have 100 aircraft. “We are going to expand 80 percent capacity this year (fiscal). A lot of the capacity is being expanded through the leasing route. Therefore, it may not require a huge amount of cash and this year we also expect to be significantly profitable. Also, get significant cash flow through sale and leaseback. So, we think that we probably don’t need to dilute any equity,” he noted. SpiceJet is looking to have an 80 percent capacity expansion in terms of available seat kilometre, an indicator of seat capacity. “We have very little debt in the company and the debt relates to Q400s we have on our books for the most part. We are in a healthy situation that we have very low debt,” Singh said.