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With Spicejet’s debt and unpaid dues mounting – the beleaguered airline owes vendors, airports, and lessors about Rs 1,600 crore – promoter Kalanithi Maran has tapped liquor baron and failed airline entrepreneur, Vijay Mallya, as a consultant to tide through a stressful period.
The move has left business analysts puzzled since Spicejet is going through turbulence but is definitely not hurtling to the ground, as yet. The Spicejet board hastened to add that Mallya is being brought on board only in an advisory capacity and not to execute a turnaround plan. “Clearly, he’s vastly more experienced in dealing with nonpayment of dues,” SpiceJet CEO Sanjiv Kapoor said. “Maran sir also likes the way Mallya sir did not let a bleeding airline affect his stewardship of his other interests, especially owning an IPL team.”
Mallya felt his intervention was premature at this point. “They still have planes flying in the air and can still afford to pay for fuel. I feel it’s too premature to call me in at this stage. Haan, if SpiceJet ends up in a situation where it hasn’t paid salaries of employees for over fifteen months and owes more than Rs 6000 crore to creditors, then I am their man,” the former King of Good Times said. Maran however has requested Mallya to at least give Spijcejet management a feel good pep talk by pointing out that while things look bad, it will take monumental incompetence for Spicejet to nosedive like Kingfisher.
Pundits feel the airlines sector may turn around now that Arvind Kejriwal has made travelling by business class an aspirational, feel good act for the common man. “We feel this could open the floodgates for EMI financed business class travel by low ranking salaried workers, just like financing for SUVs. So as long as SpiceJet doesn’t monumentally screw up like Kingfisher, things may turn around for them,” opined Pricewaterhouse’s aviation sector expert, Ebenezer Airportwala.