India’s SpiceJet said on Monday its flight operations remained normal and on schedule, days after the aviation regulator ordered the low-cost airline to slash its approved fleet to 50% this summer for eight weeks citing safety snags.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Wednesday that any increase in number of departures beyond 50% would require the airline to show it has sufficient technical support and financial resources to safely upgrade its capacity.
The airline has been under the spotlight lately after a slew of incidents on its flights and one of its Dubai-based lessors asked the regulator to deregister three of SpiceJet’s planes.
“We are confident of scaling up our operations and addressing any concern that the regulator may have, on priority,” the airline said on Monday.
Load factor, a measure of how much of an airline’s passenger carrying capacity has been used, was over 80% on Saturday and Sunday, the airline said in a statement.
Shares of the airline, which have plunged 41.6% so far this year compared to a 6.9% fall in bigger rival InterGlobe Aviation , rose 6.5% after the statement.
