The board of directors of budget airline SpiceJet will meet on July 23 to consider raising fresh capital through qualified institutional placement (QIP). The airline said in a notice to the stock exchange on Friday, “… the Board of Directors of SpiceJet Limited will meet on July 23, 2024 (Tuesday) to, among other things, consider and approve raising fresh capital by issuing eligible securities to qualified institutional buyers through qualified institutional placement…”.

In January this year, SpiceJet received in-principle approval from the BSE for capital infusion of Rs 2,242 crore and raised Rs 1,060 crore under preferential issue in two tranches. The Gurugram-based airline's consolidated net profit for the January-March quarter of 2023-24 increased manifold to Rs 119 crore. The company's consolidated net profit in the same quarter of FY 2022-23 was just Rs 16.85 crore. For the entire financial year 2023-24, the company had a net loss of Rs 409.43 crore. The company had a loss of Rs 1,503 crore in 2022-23.

The airline has been struggling to maintain its operations for several quarters. The company has reportedly not deposited employee provident fund contributions into the accounts of its 11,581 employees since January, 2022. According to aircraft fleet tracking website planespotter.net, as of July 19, 33 aircraft were grounded for various reasons. These included 15 Boeing 737s and 18 regional jet Q400s. SpiceJet has a total of 60 aircraft, including 32 Boeing 737s and 24 Q400s. Apart from this, it also has two Airbus 340s and two Airbus A320s.