Meanwhile, Spicejet dives down to `38 crore Q1 loss

MUMBAI: Budget carrier Spicejet posted a net loss of Rs 38.06 crore in June quarter, on higher fuel cost, weak rupee and a one-time provisioning of Rs 63.5 crore.the Gurugrambased no-frills airline had posted a net profit of Rs 175.2 crore in the same period last year. Its net income rose 20 per cent to 2,277.80 crore in the reporting quarter, compared with Rs 1,886.30 crore in the year-ago period, the airline said in a regulatory filing. Spicejet is the second domestic carrier to have announced earnings for June quarter so far.

"We have been evaluating various funding options to meet the liquidity requirements on priority," the airline had said in a statement to PTI after stock exchanges sought clarification.

Beginning early this month, the 25-year-old airline has been facing cash crunch leading it to force senior management to take a 25 per cent pay cut and proposing an up to 25 per cent reduction in the wages of other employees, including engineers and pilots.

However, after protests by these categories of employees the airline was forced to put the move on hold. Responding to shareholders' queries on pay cuts at the AGM, chief executive

Vinay Dube had said that the carrier was working very diligently and implementing for some time a mission plan that looked at every element of structuring from cost perspective, including the payrolls.

"We are looking at all multiple elements of restructuring and payroll is one of them," Dube had said indicating that the pay cut proposal was not shelved.

It can be noted that the financial crisis has come to haunt the airline once again after a gap of five years which saw Goyal offloading 24 per cent of his holding to Etihad for over Rs 2,069 crore in April 2013.