Ajay Singh, the promoter of SpiceJet, who, on Wednesday, completed one year of takeover of the once-troubled airline, used the anniversary to motivate his employees, asking them to reflect back on the day a year ago when the carrier was on verge of being shut down.
The airline was in an extremely precarious situation last year in December, with most of its flights being cancelled and uncertainty hung over its survival. The government had told SpiceJet not to take bookings beyond March 31, 2015. It is at this point, the airline's former promoter Ajay Singh took over the charge back from its then owner, Kalanithi Maran.
Since then, the airline has seen a dramatic turnaround.
In an internal mail to employees, Singh said, “Today, December 16 is an important day for all of us. It was on this day last year that our airline cancelled all its flights and prepared (itself) to shut down. Customers harangued us, creditors chased us, and newspapers wrote our obituary. It was the lowest and most painful time in our history. In fact, for most, SpiceJet was history.”
Singh, who, in 2005, along with the UK-based partner, had launched SpiceJet by reviving ModiLuft's inactive air operator's permit. He, however, sold it in 2010 to Maran, although he retained 4% equity stake.
Reminding employees of the bad situation a year ago, Singh said, “For this, I want to thank each and every one of you. I want to thank you for reporting to work on December 16, 2014 knowing that it could very well be your last day here. I want to thank you for showing amazing courage and grace as you faced irate customers at airports and in the planes. I want to thank you for the blows you took, physically and to your pride. I want to thank you for keeping your faith in your airline under unbelievable pressure. And, most of all, I want to thank you working with incredible passion and energy over the last one year to restore the pride and glory of our SpiceJet. Let us pledge today that we will never allow December 16, 2014, to happen to us again. Never. Ever.”
The airline sources said over last one year, the company has been able to lower its debt to around Rs 1,000 crore at present from the earlier Rs 2,200 crore. Also, SpiceJet is generating enough cash to fund its day-to-day operations and for two successive quarters. The airline has made a profit of Rs 22.52 crore and Rs 71.85 crore respectively.
In comparison, rival Indigo airline reported a record net profit of Rs1,304 crore for the year ending March, which is about a four-fold jump over the previous year.
SpiceJet's stock price has moved up from Rs 13.90 on December 16, 2014, a whopping 379% to Rs 66.55 on Wednesday.
