Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet continues to seek out itself in financial trouble with aircraft lessors. The airline reportedly faced a defeat in UK courts last month, requiring it to shell out a combined sum of $15 million to 2 lessors.
In line with Moneycontrol, the judgment in query was delivered last month within the London High Court and involved GASL Ireland Leasing A-1 and VS MSN 36118 CAV. Judgments in each cases were passed last month and related to SpiceJet not paying rent dues to the lessors. Let’s take a more in-depth have a look at each case.
Case 1: GASL Ireland vs. SpiceJet
GASL’s dispute with SpiceJet was about non-payment of rent for an aircraft the latter leased together with unfulfilled redelivery conditions. The carrier took one Boeing 737-800 from the Irish lessor in May 2017 and did not pay rent after a degree. GASL asked SpiceJet to return the airframe in March 2021 at Shannon Airport in Ireland, however the airline only made the plane available in August later that 12 months, and that too in Bangalore, India.
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On February 18, 2022, GASL was successful in securing a summary judgment for an impressive rent of over $5.3 million. SpiceJet failed to fulfill elaborate redelivery conditions starting with the airframe not being returned to Ireland. The lessor sent the returned 737 to an experienced aircraft maintenance engineer by the name of Peter Bull for an inspection in Lithuania.
Mr Bull took 1,800 photographs of the narrowbody and described it as
Taking Mr Bull’s expert opinion into consideration and accepting the failure to comply with various other redelivery conditions by SpiceJet, the court awarded over $8.49 million to GASL in its judgment. Before the order was passed, the LCC tried to get the case adjourned after the law firm representing it pulled out for, you guessed it, non-payment of fees. Nonetheless, the court showed no sympathy and identified how the carrier had made no efforts to seek out alternate representation and tried to stall proceedings on previous occasions as well.
Case 2: VS MSN vs. SpiceJet
This dispute is a couple of Boeing 737-700 that SpiceJet leased for 96 months in April 2018. Because the pandemic wreaked havoc on the worldwide aviation industry, SpiceJet struggled financially and defaulted on rent payments in November 2020. Each parties then agreed to defer rent payments of $1,657,376.