Private budget airline SpiceJet has reported a net loss of Rs 807.1 crore in the January-March quarter of FY20 against a profit of Rs 56.3 crore in the same quarter last year. While the airline has said that the business was adversely impacted due to the COVID‐19 pandemic and the nation‐wide lockdown that resulted in suspension of flight operations, flights were operational till March 24. This meant that flights were suspended only for one week in Q4 of FY20.
The company also announced that its Chief Financial Officer Kiran Koteshwar has resigned from the airline after working there for 13 years, to pursue an opportunity overseas. He will remain with SpiceJet till August 31, 2020, and for a transition thereafter.
Revenue from operations grew 13% to Rs 863.9 crore in Q4. For the year FY20, the airline has reported a net loss of Rs 934.8 crore and operating revenue of Rs 12,358.6 crore.
The company also said that grounding of the Boeing MAX 737 fleet inflated costs and impacted the company’s bottom line.
“FY2020 posed multiple unprecedented challenges such as the COVID‐19 pandemic and the world‐wide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX which led to the overnight grounding of SpiceJet’s MAX fleet. On the grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, the Company continues to incur various costs with respect to these aircraft,” the company said in a statement.
Since April 1, 2019, the airline has added 38 aircraft which included 737s, Q400s and freighters. This also included its 100th aircraft – a Boeing 737 in Mat 2019.
Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet also said in a statement that one key factor that adversely impacted the airline’s performance and bottom line was the COVID‐19 pandemic that started affecting demand adversely from mid‐February, while the second factor was the grounding of the 737 MAX
“Despite the yearlong grounding of the MAX aircraft, SpiceJet ran a profitable operation till COVID hit demand from mid‐ February. Indian and the global aviation industry are going through the toughest‐ever phase in aviation history. We at SpiceJet have constantly adapted to the changing economic environment and I am happy that our cargo operations have performed very well. I am confident that things will only improve in the times to come. We remain cautious but optimistic about the future.”