(MENAFN- AFP) Beleaguered Indian airline SpiceJet resumed flights late Wednesday afternoon following an agreement to pay cash for fuel purchases, hours after it grounded its fleet and stranded thousands of travellers.
The no-frills airline, one of India's leading carriers, was forced to cancel all flights after suppliers refused to refuel its planes due to unpaid bills, leaving thousands of angry passengers in the lurch at airports across the country.
"We have resumed operations. We paid in cash at some airports," a source in the airline told AFP on condition of anonymity.
SpiceJet chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor tweeted an apology for inconvenience caused to passengers, who were shown on local TV shouting at SpiceJet staff, demanding refunds.
"We apologise again for the disruptions," Kapoor said.
The fleet's grounding came a day after the government asked state-run oil companies and airport authorities to extend emergency credit to the debt-ridden airline, which last week cancelled nearly 1,900 flights due to cashflow woes.
S.L. Narayanan, chief financial officer of SpiceJet's parent Sun Group, said the decision to ground the fleet was "forced on our hands as a result of a lack of fuel supply".
"The situation is just two to three days of overdues and the whole house has come crashing down on us," Narayanan told India's CNBC-TV18 news channel.
Narayanan said the carrier needed six-billion rupees ($94 million) to "get us going and I am very confident that we will turn around".
The Civil Aviation Ministry said Tuesday banks may be asked to lend as much as $94 million to keep the carrier in the air, backed by the personal guarantee of the airline's controlling shareholder, Indian billionaire Kalanithi Maran.
SpiceJet had approached the government Monday for emergency help to stay aloft.
The ministry has already eased booking curbs imposed after the carrier cancelled flights and missed salary payments.
The carrier, which has a fleet of 37 planes, laid out a recovery plan two months ago that involved using fewer and newer planes.
But even with the fall in jet-fuel prices, which represents over 40 percent of Indian airlines' operating costs, the carrier is still facing a cash crunch.
India has a congested airline market where fare competition is fierce and operating costs are high.
The balance sheets of all but one of its big four carriers are in the red.
There is speculation SpiceJet could end up being permanently grounded like Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines, which stopped flying in 2012 after running up huge debts.
SpiceJet's shares continued their losing streak, closing down 5.4 percent at 13.15 rupees.
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