DGCA to not review move to impose curbs on SpiceJet; stocks falls nearly 13%

MUMBAI: Continuing to fall for the fifth straight session, shares of budget carrier SpiceJet ended over 4 per cent lower today amid a flurry of negative news, including fund drought and large-scale flight cancellations.

After falling 12.85 per cent to Rs 13.90 in intra-day trade, shares of SpiceJet finally ended at Rs 15.25, down 4.39 per cent from its previous close on the BSE.

In five trading sessions, the stock has fallen by over 28 per cent. During this period, the company's market value fell by Rs 321 crore to Rs 816.30 crore.

Concerned over deteriorating condition of SpiceJet and large-scale flight cancellations, aviation regulator DGCA last week withdrew 186 of its slots and asked it to clear salary dues of all its employees by December 15.

With SpiceJet wobbling amid fund drought and the aviation regulator keeping a close tab on its curtailed operations, the no-frill carrier's pilots are flocking to other airlines in search of a job, industry sources said.

The airline auditors, in their recent report, have cast doubts over SpiceJet's ability to run as a "going concern".

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had late last week raised serious concerns over the financial health of the domestic airline.

"We are running through a lot of turbulent weather... not only the public sector, private sector is also crashing. (With) Kingfisher crashing and, right now, SpiceJet seems to be giving us heart attacks as far as airlines are concerned," Raju had said.

Shares of the company have been on the back foot amid reports that Airport Authority of India has put it on cash-and-carry payment mode.

In a filing to the BSE, the company today said, "We would like to clarify that SpiceJet Limited is not under a "Cash-and-Carry" payment mode with Airport Authority of India as wrongly reported in certain sections of the media."

The airline has reported fifth straight quarter of net losses for the July-September period at Rs 310 crore which is down from Rs 559 crore net loss during the corresponding period last year.