SpiceJet to fly into positive zone during current financial year, says Chairman Ajay Singh

Having revived Spicejet from the brink of collapse, the airline's chairman and managing director Ajay Singh expects the net worth of the low-cost carrier to fly into the positive zone during the current financial year.

In a free-wheeling talk with Mail Today, Singh said he had paid off all the outstanding dues amounting to a whopping Rs 1600 crore to banks and the government, which had piled up when the airline was being managed by the Maran family.

Singh said the net worth of Spicejet which had plummeted to minus Rs 1400 crore before he took over the airline again, has now improved to minus Rs 600 crore and will turn positive within this fiscal. A positive net worth means the value of the assets of a company exceed its financial liabilities.

He said Spicejet would be adding another 8 to 10 planes to its fleet this year and would be hiring more pilots and cabin crew for expanding its operations. Singh who has triggered the trend of offering hefty discounts in the advance sale of tickets to raise cash for running the airline, said that low prices of jet fuel were not the only reason for Spicejet having turned profitable.

He said while low jet fuel prices had helped in cutting costs it had also enabled the airline to keep ticket prices low as a result of which air traffic had surged. "There has been a significant increase in the revenue of Spicejet because of the increased demand," he explained.

Asked to comment on the changes that had come in the system after the new government took over, Singh said the Modi government deserves praise "for rooting out corruption from the corridors of power which had increased the ease of doing business."

He also said the government had given a welcome fillip to the infrastructure sector which was reflected in the much faster pace at which highways were now being constructed. The government has also transformed the coal and power sectors which had turned into laggards earlier, he added.

However, he lamented that this same vision was not being extended to the aviation sector. Singh's grouse is that the Modi government appears to be pursuing the same policy as the UPA government as far as auctioning bilateral flying rights to foreign airlines is concerned which is not in the interest of Indian airlines.

"I am not talking merely about Spicejet or even private commercial airlines but Air India as well which is a governmentowned airline," he pointed out.

Singh said already Dubai and Abhu Dhabi had emerged as aviation hubs that were drawing away traffic from Indian airlines and this trend would increase if more bilateral rights were auctioned.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)