In some good news for the Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet, the engine lessor Engine Lease Finance BV has informed the Delhi High Court that they are deferring their case against SpiceJet until February, due to an interim settlement made between them.
Settlement Agreement
SpiceJet in their settlement has accepted to pay $2 million to the lessor by January, 2024 and all the engines leased from Finance BV will be returned to them by 25 January, 2024.
There is also a clause added whereby the Lessor retains the option to seek the High Court’s intervention if SpiceJet fails to comply with the agreement.
This settlement came after the Delhi High Court in its hearing on October 5 gave SpiceJet until 16 October to settle with the lessor.
Failure to do so would have resulted in the Court restraining the airline from using those engines, which would have in turn resulted in the grounding of the carrier’s aircraft.
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Currently SpiceJet has returned eight of the nine leased engines belonging to the lessor. SpiceJet said in a statement “SpiceJet and Engine Lease Finance Corp Aviation Services Ltd have mutually decided to resolve the dispute through amicable means, outside of the courtroom.”
This is one of the many legal battles SpiceJet is currently fighting in the Court. Recently the airline shares went down by around 11% after reports of Rakesh Gangwal from IndiGo investing turned out to be fake news.
Rakesh Gangwal himself rubbished the claims and asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to investigate this incident.
Operation Ajay
SpiceJet found itself back in the news yet again recently but this time for a good reason, with regards its A340 which was taken in wet lease to Tel Aviv from Delhi.
This was operated by the airline under “Operation Ajay” an initiative launched by Government of India to bring back the stranded Indian nationals who were caught in cross-fire between Israel and Hamas.
The A340 aircraft repatriated around 286 passengers, out of which 18 passengers were citizens of Nepal. This was the fifth charted aircraft operated by the government of India.
This is one of the many instances whereby the Indian government has stepped in and assisted its citizens stuck in a foreign country due to war.
The A340 on wet lease with SpiceJet was supposed to arrive on Monday 16 October, but when the aircraft landed in Tel Aviv to pick up the passengers it developed a technical snag.
Due to this the aircraft had to be flown to Jordan, which was the nearest available airport which had the capability to rectify such snags. Hence the aircraft was delayed by a day.
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