SpiceJet shares surge over 17% in two sessions amid flight cancellations at IndiGo

Shares of the country's leading airline SpiceJet were witnessing buying interest for second straight session on Monday, December 8, amid continuous flight disruptions at the country's largest IndiGo. SpiceJet shares rose as much as 17% to hit an intraday high of ₹35.50 on the BSE. In the last two trading sessions SpiceJet shares have surged as much as 17% amid higher than usual trading volumes.

In Monday's trading session as many as 3.5 crore shares changed hands compared with an average of 73.60 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks data from BSE showed.

SpiceJet shares have come under high demand as flight cancellations at IndiGo entered day seven. Over 250 IndiGo flights were cancelled from Delhi and Bengaluru airports on Monday as the disruptions in the crisis-hit airline's flight operations entered the seventh day sources told news agency Press Trust of India.

At the Delhi airport, 134 flights were cancelled -- 75 departures and 59 arrivals -- while at the Bengaluru airport, the carrier cancelled 117 services -- 65 arrivals and 62 departures, they said.

IndIGo has been facing heat from both the government and the passengers for cancelling hundreds of flights since December 2, citing regulatory changes in the pilots' new flight duty and regulations norms, which resulted in lakhs of passengers getting stuck at airports pan-India.

For the first three days the airline, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, failed to acknowledge the huge number of cancellations and it was only Friday when it cancelled 1,600 flights (Friday), a record in Indian aviation history that CEO Elbers released a video apologising for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.

In the message, he admitted that the airline was cancelling a large number of flights, but did not mention that it would cancel 1,600 flights on that particular day.

The new norms, applicable for all domestic carriers, have come into force in two phases - July 1 and November 1 this year.

IndiGo has already temporarily secured major relaxations in the second phase norms till February 10.

The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.

Meanwhile, IndiGo has processed refunds totalling Rs 610 crore so far against cancelled or severely delayed flights, and delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers across the country as of Saturday, the government said on Sunday.

It also said the aviation network is moving swiftly towards full normalcy, and all corrective measures will remain in place until operations stabilise entirely.

On Saturday, the government had directed the airline to complete the ticket refund process for the cancelled flights by Sunday evening, and ensure baggage separated from travellers are delivered in the next two days.

As of 11:56 am, SpiceJet shares traded 11.48% higher at ₹34.78, outperforming the BSE SmallCap index which was down 1.4%.