NEW DELHI: Aircraft leasing companies that have leased aircraft to tight budgets SpiceJet are now rushing to reclaim their planes.
Now Ireland’s Alterna Aircraft VB Ltd has applied for Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under Irrevocable De-registration and Export Request Authorizations (IDERA) regulations.
That request comes just days after another Irish aircraft rental company AWAS, which was acquired by Gulf-based Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) in 2017, asked regulators to deregister three Boeing 737s because the airline was reportedly unable to do so was leasing to pay rent.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet announced on Tuesday that it has reached a full and final settlement with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and settled all outstanding airport operator principal fees.
“With this, SpiceJet will no longer remain on ‘cash and carry’ at AAI operated airports across the country and will revert to the prepayment mechanism for daily flight operations…. AAI will release SpiceJet’s Rs 50 crore bank guarantee after the airline settles all of its principal debts. This will result in additional liquidity for the airline,” SpiceJet announced on Tuesday.
IDERA is part of the Cape Town Convention and provides that an aircraft owner may de-register an aircraft in the name of a third party, e.g. B. in cases of non-rentals.
On July 30, 2022, a SpiceJet had announced that the airline plans to gradually replace all of its older Boeing aircraft with the new Max model.
“Between now and next calendar year, SpiceJet will add approximately 20 new Max aircraft to its fleet. As part of this modernization plan, we are gradually returning older aircraft, including these three aircraft. These returns have been planned and will have no impact on our business. SpiceJet has already returned 12 old Boeing aircraft to lessors in the past calendar year. We have 13 MAX aircraft in our fleet and new introductions would begin from October 2022,” the spokesman had said.