SpiceJet today is a shadow of what it was in its yesteryears. While for many it remains a mystery how SpiceJet survives with so many challenges all around, the airline is back to expanding. It recently declared a loss of ₹635.42 crore ( ₹447.7 crore loss excluding Foreign Exchange loss) in Q2-FY26. In comparison, IndiGo, which is more than 12 times bigger than SpiceJet, recorded a loss of ₹2,582 crore in Q2-FY26.
The airline subsequently made announcements on adding more narrowbody aircraft to its fleet and reactivating its own MAX 8. With 14 wet/damp leases and one of its own, the airline has grown its active fleet by 15 aircraft in a span of 30 days, adding flights on multiple routes across the country. The active aircraft count now stands at 35, comprising 28 737s (NG and MAX) and seven Q400s. The airline had announced plans of ungrounding many more Q400s over the last three quarters, but there has hardly been any progress on the ground, with the blame being put on supply chain issues.
The airline, which aims to have 250 daily flights next month, 2.5 times of what it was in September, could compete with Akasa Air for market share, again, after barely cornering 2% of the domestic market in the last few months.
Where is the airline expanding?
As it intends to grow 2.5 times by flights and thrice by capacity (by ASK), the growth is coming at Delhi and Mumbai, shows data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company. The airline will offer 276 weekly departures from Delhi and 185 from Mumbai in December as compared to 144 and 68, respectively, in September.
This is followed by Chennai (107 vs 32), Kolkata (102 vs 29) and Ahmedabad (65 vs 15). At one point of time, it was down to just two international destinations, Dubai and Bangkok, and the airline has since started flights to Kathmandu and Phuket, along with flights under special arrangement to Najaf for a temporary period, and Fujairah.
Dubai – the heart of SpiceJet network
Dubai, with its legacy allocation to SpiceJet, has remained the crown for SpiceJet’s network and helped it survive in adversities. Before the wet-leased planes began arriving and SpiceJet was down to a 100 flights, Dubai was the second largest station in its network after Delhi, with 74 weekly flights. Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital and a slot-constrained airport, came third. While additional allocation of seats prevents it from launching more flights, the incremental capacity addition across its network still sees Dubai as the fifth largest station for the airline. It connects Dubai with nine destinations in India, compared to 13 by IndiGo, five by Air India, and 11 by Air India Express.
The focus on Dubai as part of its network is tremendous as SpiceJet’s skeletal international schedule is 19.8% of its total network by ASK, and 9.6% by total seats on offer. By comparison, IndiGo has 19.51% of its ASKs (Available Seat Kilometers) deployed on international routes while 7.4% of its seats are on international routes. IndiGo is miles ahead of SpiceJet in absolute numbers, with all its parameters like Departures, Seats and ASKs being at least 10 times more than the latter.
Finances remain a challenge
SpiceJet’s auditor, again, pointed out the accumulated losses of ₹8,637.9 crore, and current liabilities exceeding current assets by ₹4,277.3 crores as of September 30, 2025, casting “significant doubt” about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern, a remark which the airline has in its auditor notes for as long as one remembers. Its negative net worth as of September end is ₹2,801.9 crore. For comparison, in December 2014 when the airline was at the brink of closure, its negative net worth was ₹630 crore.
Tail Note
The airline inducted a wet-leased A340-300, typically a gas guzzler and opened reservations for flights to Bangkok between 10 October and 5 November. The airline ramped down the capacity within days and deployed it to Dubai, which again alternated to Bangkok. The aircraft has been sitting at Dubai World Central Airport (DWC) for the last few days.
Having attracted reputed talent in the form of Sanjay Kumar as Executive Director may help with managing its business but its fleet woes will not be resolved without money. With the wet or damp leases planes being in equal number or more than its own or self leased ones, the cost of operating these is higher and the airline will have to rely on frequent leases and returns to match the business cycles in India where the Q1 and Q3 of the financial year are stronger but since they are not consecutive months, the planes will need to be in and out of the country.
The ultimate truth is cashflow for any business and more so for an airline. The addition of planes will help the airline with revenue and market share, but it is the ability to generate surplus cash from the business which will help it settle obligations and invest in growth. Will it break that jinx or will it be the more of the same?