Parking fee of Rs 5.5 cr? SpiceJet's grounded aircraft owes hefty charge

A SpiceJet Boeing B-737 MAX 8 aircraft has earned a parking fee of Rs 5.5 crore at Kolkata airport. The aircraft with registration number VT-MXA has been stationed at the Kolkata airport for 30 months.

“The SpiceJet B-737 Max 8 aircraft has been stationed at Kolkata airport since March 13, 2019. Now that the regulators have started allowing resumption of operations with the narrow-body aircraft, SpiceJet is planning to operate the grounded aircraft again from October 5. Once the plane rolls out of the bay, the airport will hand over the parking charge bill to the airline,” an airport official told Times of India.

The SpiceJet aircraft at Kolkata was delivered to the airline in November 2018. Four months later, SpiceJet had to ground 13 Boeing 737 MAX aircrafts since its operations were halted globally following two crashes -- one in Indonesia and the other one in Ethiopia.

The DGCA lifted the ban from the aircraft in August allowing it to fly again.

As it prepares the aircraft to fly again from October 5, SpiceJet has reportedly been training its pilots at the SpiceJet Training Academy in Gurgaon and at the Boeing Simulator facility in Noida. The airline had over 350 pilots who were trained or qualified on the MAX at the time when the aircraft was grounded.

The airline is spring cleaning the cabin and preparing it for returning to skies after almost two-and-half years.

An airport official told the daily that now that the bay will be available, it will give the airport more flexibility, pointing out that prior to the pandemic, the airport had to refuse night parking slots to airlines due to space crunch.