SpiceJet Flights To Resume By 4 pm

Budget carrier SpiceJet's COO or chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor said flights would resume by 4 pm on Wednesday. The airline was forced to ground its entire fleet this morning after oil companies, which are owed money by the airline, refused to refuel its planes.

1. Loss-making SpiceJet owes money to creditors including oil companies. Its total liabilities add upto over Rs 2000 crore.
2. The airline won a crucial reprieve from clamouring creditors on Tuesday, after the government asked airport operators and fuel suppliers to give the carrier more time to pay its bills.
3. The company currently has around 250 departures per day with most flights operating from Delhi and Mumbai.
4. Seeking to avoid another embarrassing airline collapse like that of high-profile Kingfisher, the Civil Aviation Ministry said late on Tuesday that the regulator would be asked to allow SpiceJet to sell advance tickets until March 31, 2015.
5. The Civil Aviation Ministry also said that airport operators would be asked to give the airline 15 days to make payments, while state oil companies would be ask to give credit for up to 15 days.
6. The parent of loss-making SpiceJet Ltd cannot make large investments into the carrier and can do no more than provide a guarantee for a bank loan needed to keep the airline from collapsing, said Sun Group chief financial officer.
7. "We do not have the liquidity to invest large sums at the time which is why we need bank financing. For which the promoters are willing to provide a guarantee. We cannot do more than this," S.L. Narayanan said on Wednesday.
8. The aviation ministry had said it may request Indian Banks and financial institutions to extend loans of upto Rs 600 crore to the airline -- backed by the personal guarantee of SpiceJet Chairman Kalanithi Maran, a billionaire media tycoon.
9. SpiceJet, which has been in the red since last year, has already cut the size of its fleet by a third since September and cancelled more than 70 flights a day for the rest of this year.
10. The airline hopes that oil companies will follow the government's orders and release fuel later today with two-week credit