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SpiceJet ‘resumes flights’

Indian airline SpiceJet reportedly resumed flights after it agreed to pay oil companies cash for fuel purchases.

The fleet of the debt-ridden carrier, which owes money to creditors, including oil companies, was grounded for several hours on Wednesday.

The cancellations left thousands travellers stranded at airports across the country, the BBC reported.

SpiceJet, India’s fourth-biggest airline by market share, has $314 million in debts.

The carrier has been unable to pay its dues to staff, airports, tax authorities and its lenders.

“We have resumed operations [from Wednesday evening]. We paid [oil companies] in cash at some airports,” news agency AFP quoted a source in SpiceJet as saying.

The airline cancelled nearly 1,900 flights last week and did not operate more than 150 of the 243 scheduled flights on Wednesday, reports said.

Civil aviation authorities gave SpiceJet a reprieve on Tuesday when they asked state-owned oil companies to give credit to the cash-strapped airline for up to 15 days.

The civil aviation ministry also said that banks or other financial institutions would be asked to lend up to $94 million, backed by a personal guarantee of SpiceJet chairman Kalanithi Maran.

The ministry said the measures were aimed at avoiding a collapse which it said would be a “major setback” for the airline industry.

SpiceJet has been making losses since last year. It has cut the size of its fleet by a third since September and cancelled dozens of flights a day for the rest of the year.

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