Editor's Pick | Aviation regulator places SpiceJet under strict watch

India’s aviation safety regulator placed SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance on a day when the cash-strapped airline’s passengers were once again barred from checking in for their flights at the Dubai airport over delayed payments. The move by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will entail increased spot checks as well as night surveillance to ensure that the airline’s poor financial health does not impact flight safety, a senior DGCA official said. He added that a special audit of the airline’s engineering facilities was conducted on August 7 and 8, revealing “certain deficiencies”. The stand-off at the Dubai airport forced the airline to cancel some of the 11 flights it operates to Dubai daily, and fly empty aircraft back to India. Industry sources said that the cancellations were due to delayed payments to ground-handling service provider Dnata, which told SpiceJet that they could either provide passenger facilitation or fuel. Since the airline wanted to utilise the aircraft for other flights as well, it decided to fly the aircraft back to India in an empty state. “Due to operational reasons, a few SpiceJet flights from Dubai were cancelled. Affected passengers have been accommodated on subsequent SpiceJet flights, on other airlines, or provided with a full refund,” SpiceJet said in a statement, adding that all its flights from Dubai were now operating as planned. The airline’s passengers at Dubai have been affected on multiple occasions in the recent past, but people in the know said these incidents had become more common over the last week. Commenting on the Thursday incident, a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation said: “We are monitoring SpiceJet.” The official added that the airline was going through a “challenging time”, referring to its poor financial health. Meanwhile, SpiceJet employees are upset over the airline’s failure to pay their salaries for two months. In Guwahati, nearly 80 loaders, drivers, and cleaners refused to report for duty for the second day in a row on Thursday and held a demonstration outside the airport to protest the delay. Later in the evening, the airline released July’s salary for some of them. “We earn a meagre ₹15,000 per month which the airline is unable to pay us. Many of us haven’t been able to pay rent to our landlords,” said one staff member from Guwahati on the condition of anonymity. Another staff member from Bengaluru who works in SpiceJet’s security department described a similar ordeal. “Many of us are surviving only on one meal a day. My family is particularly vulnerable because I have a two-month-old child, and therefore, I asked my wife to mortgage her jewellery to be able to pay ₹7,000 to the landlord,” he said. Another senior engineer wrote to The Hindu about his junior colleagues being forced to work as delivery agents with Swiggy and Zomato to make ends meet. Pilots and cabin crew too were last paid salaries for the month of June, the airline said, in response to a questionnaire from The Hindu. There are also concerns over the airline’s failure to deposit its share with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation as well as the tax deducted at source with the Income Tax department for the financial year 2024-2025. Over the past year, several engine and plane lessors have also dragged SpiceJet to court, seeking its liquidation due to its failure to pay rentals. Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court ordered the airline to ground three engines leased from two French lessors — Team France 01 SAS and Sunbird France 02 SAS — because of its defaults in rental payments. The airline was placed under “enhanced surveillance” by the DGCA in 2022 as well due to “degraded” safety issues. In July 2022, the DGCA grounded 10 Spice Jet aircraft after spot checks. Due to its inability to make payments to lessors as well as pay for maintenance and spare parts, the airline’s active fleet is now down to 23 aircraft, compared to nearly 120 planes pre-COVID. Last month, the board of the budget carrier approved a proposal to raise up to ₹3,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP). While the airline had earlier announced plans to raise about ₹2,250 crore from a group of 64 investors, it could only raise ₹1,060 crore, as one of the primary investors eventually backed out. The Hindu’s Editorials ​By another name: On misleading advertisements, fake medicine ​Biotech enigma: On the BioE3 proposal and beyond The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Who was the President of the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes, who recently resigned after the Hema committee report alleging sexual assault in the Malayalam film industry? Tovino Thomas Joy Mathew Mohanlal Suresh Krishna To know the answer and to play the full quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 30 August 2024 [The Hindu logo] [EP Logo] Editor's Pick 30 August 2024 In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Aviation regulator places SpiceJet under strict watch [India’s aviation safety regulator placed SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance]( on a day when the cash-strapped airline’s passengers were once again barred from checking in for their flights at the Dubai airport over delayed payments. The move by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will entail increased spot checks as well as night surveillance to ensure that the airline’s poor financial health does not impact flight safety, a senior DGCA official said. He added that a special audit of the airline’s engineering facilities was conducted on August 7 and 8, revealing “certain deficiencies”. The stand-off at the Dubai airport forced the airline to cancel some of the 11 flights it operates to Dubai daily, and fly empty aircraft back to India. Industry sources said that the cancellations were due to delayed payments to ground-handling service provider Dnata, which told SpiceJet that they could either provide passenger facilitation or fuel. Since the airline wanted to utilise the aircraft for other flights as well, it decided to fly the aircraft back to India in an empty state. “Due to operational reasons, a few SpiceJet flights from Dubai were cancelled. Affected passengers have been accommodated on subsequent SpiceJet flights, on other airlines, or provided with a full refund,” SpiceJet said in a statement, adding that all its flights from Dubai were now operating as planned. The airline’s passengers at Dubai have been affected on multiple occasions in the recent past, but people in the know said these incidents had become more common over the last week. Commenting on the Thursday incident, a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation said: “We are monitoring SpiceJet.” The official added that the airline was going through a “challenging time”, referring to its poor financial health. Meanwhile, SpiceJet employees are upset over the airline’s failure to pay their salaries for two months. In Guwahati, nearly 80 loaders, drivers, and cleaners refused to report for duty for the second day in a row on Thursday and held a demonstration outside the airport to protest the delay. Later in the evening, the airline released July’s salary for some of them. “We earn a meagre ₹15,000 per month which the airline is unable to pay us. Many of us haven’t been able to pay rent to our landlords,” said one staff member from Guwahati on the condition of anonymity. Another staff member from Bengaluru who works in SpiceJet’s security department described a similar ordeal. “Many of us are surviving only on one meal a day. My family is particularly vulnerable because I have a two-month-old child, and therefore, I asked my wife to mortgage her jewellery to be able to pay ₹7,000 to the landlord,” he said. Another senior engineer wrote to The Hindu about his junior colleagues being forced to work as delivery agents with Swiggy and Zomato to make ends meet. Pilots and cabin crew too were last paid salaries for the month of June, the airline said, in response to a questionnaire from The Hindu. There are also concerns over the airline’s failure to deposit its share with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation as well as the tax deducted at source with the Income Tax department for the financial year 2024-2025. Over the past year, several engine and plane lessors have also dragged SpiceJet to court, seeking its liquidation due to its failure to pay rentals. Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court ordered the airline to ground three engines leased from two French lessors — Team France 01 SAS and Sunbird France 02 SAS — because of its defaults in rental payments. The airline was placed under “enhanced surveillance” by the DGCA in 2022 [as well due to “degraded” safety issues](. In July 2022, the DGCA [grounded 10 Spice Jet aircraft after spot checks]( Due to its inability to make payments to lessors as well as pay for maintenance and spare parts, the airline’s active fleet is now down to 23 aircraft, compared to nearly 120 planes pre-COVID. Last month, the board of the budget carrier approved a proposal to raise up to ₹3,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP). While the airline had earlier announced plans to raise about ₹2,250 crore from a group of 64 investors, it could only raise ₹1,060 crore, as one of the primary investors eventually backed out. The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][​By another name: On misleading advertisements, fake medicine]( [Arrow][​Biotech enigma: On the BioE3 proposal and beyond]( The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Who was the President of the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes, who recently resigned after the Hema committee report alleging sexual assault in the Malayalam film industry? - Tovino Thomas - Joy Mathew - Mohanlal - Suresh Krishna To know the answer and to play the full quiz, [click here](. Today’s Best Reads [[A.G. Noorani was a fearless author who spoke truth to power] A.G. 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