India Spiced Up

Ajay Singh has had a dream run with SpiceJet. The low-cost carrier has become a showpiece for the world: on its way to higher skies with improved performance on all fronts. K SRINIVASAN pieces the SpiceJet saga.

If someone had said in December 2014 that SpiceJet would survive and blossom, it would post continuous profits for multiple quarters on end, it would have a load factor of over 90 percent for three-years-plus, it would order over 200 aircraft and it would be the best performing stock in the Indian aviation sector, the gent would’ve needed to have his head examined. So bad were the salts at SpiceJet that winter, that anyone tasting it would have easily got a bout of high blood pressure! It was tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, briefly grounded, lessors baying for their planes and the Maran brothers who owned the airline in deep, deep trouble. And a new business-friendly BJP government in Delhi wondering, what next?

Cut to circa 2018, more specifically this month (August) when the first 737-800 Max in SpiceJet colours will take off. It has been a remarkable 42 months of continuous turnaround. Of course, it helped that Ajay Singh in his Avatar-2 at SpiceJet was helped by the fact that he was a founder of the airline (before he sold his stake to the Marans), that he was hugely networked in the BJP with the business-friendly government that did not want an aviation disaster on its hands (so soon after Kingfisher) and so soon after taking office. The very opposite of ‘Acche Din’.

Tottering as a crisis-ridden airline with losses of over ₹1000 crore in 2013-14, with no cash to pay staff and debts, SpiceJet was in a deep, deep hole. And adding salt to the wounds in December 2014, the airline was grounded after oil companies refused to refuel its aircraft due to non-payments. The share price tanked and the all-round assessment was that SpiceJet was doomed.