India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has placed SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) under an enhanced surveillance regime after a recent audit uncovered unspecified "deficiencies." In the same week, ground handler Dnata is preventing the airline from boarding certain flights out of Dubai International due to unpaid airport debts.
"In light of the past record and the special audit carried out in August 2024, SpiceJet has once again been placed under enhanced surveillance with immediate effect," the DGCA said on August 28. "This would entail increase in number of spot checks/night surveillance with a view to ensure safety of operations."
The safety regulator also briefly placed SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance last year. The Economic Times reports that the DGCA conducted an audit of SpiceJet's engineering facilities on August 8 and 9, 2024, and uncovered "certain deficiencies," leading to last week's decision. ch-aviation has contacted SpiceJet for comment.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet's rolling funding challenges have resulted in the carrier deciding to furlough 150 cabin crew over the upcoming off-peak travel period. Indian outlets have also reported that Emirates-owned Dnata has given SpiceJet a choice of fuel or passenger processing facilities on multiple flights recently departing Dubai because of outstanding debts. Needing the aircraft back in India, SpiceJet has opted for fuel and flown the aircraft back empty. This has reportedly happened several times over the past fortnight. SpiceJet attributes the cancelled flights to operational reasons and claims all of its flights to and from Dubai are operating as scheduled.
SpiceJet is attempting to raise capital to reboot its operations and steady its finances. Earlier this year, it had hoped to raise around INR22.5 billion rupees (USD268.2 million) from around 68 investors but only raised INR10.6 billion (USD126.3 million) after a key investor backed out. In July, SpiceJet's board said it would attempt to raise INR30 billion (USD357.5 million) through a qualified institutional placement.
