According to a report by Tarun Shukla for Mint, Ajay Singh, who plans to take over SpiceJet Ltd., has held talks with aircraft lessors in Singapore and pilots to reassure them that the airline is likely to get funds potentially by mid-February, addressing key constituents who could jeopardise the revival-in-the-making.
Kalanithi Maran and his KAL Airways Pvt. Ltd. are in the process of transferring their stake in the airline to Singh, a Co-founder in the airline that he exited in 2010, under a deal that has been approved by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India and is now awaiting clearance from stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Meanwhile, lessors at the cash-strapped airline have been getting restless. On January 23, Reuters quoted Bank of China Aviation’s Chief Executive, Robert Martin as saying that SpiceJet was “a very frustrating situation”. “Obviously, when we lease planes, we like people to pay us. And if they don’t pay us, then generally the way an operating lessor reacts is by moving its planes to somewhere else in the world,” he added.
Singh and fellow investors have promised the Aviation Ministry an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the airline. The Ministry has allowed the airline to book tickets beyond March 2015. A Ministry official said lessors have been meeting regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) regularly seeking the return of 11 planes from SpiceJet. DGCA has taken legal opinion, and under the Cape Town Convention, which India is signatory to, the regulator may have to do what the lessors want, this person added.
27/01/15 TravelBizMonitor
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Kalanithi Maran and his KAL Airways Pvt. Ltd. are in the process of transferring their stake in the airline to Singh, a Co-founder in the airline that he exited in 2010, under a deal that has been approved by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India and is now awaiting clearance from stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Meanwhile, lessors at the cash-strapped airline have been getting restless. On January 23, Reuters quoted Bank of China Aviation’s Chief Executive, Robert Martin as saying that SpiceJet was “a very frustrating situation”. “Obviously, when we lease planes, we like people to pay us. And if they don’t pay us, then generally the way an operating lessor reacts is by moving its planes to somewhere else in the world,” he added.
Singh and fellow investors have promised the Aviation Ministry an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the airline. The Ministry has allowed the airline to book tickets beyond March 2015. A Ministry official said lessors have been meeting regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) regularly seeking the return of 11 planes from SpiceJet. DGCA has taken legal opinion, and under the Cape Town Convention, which India is signatory to, the regulator may have to do what the lessors want, this person added.
27/01/15 TravelBizMonitor
