SpiceJet shares settle over 3 pc down

Shares of SpiceJet settled over 3 percent lower on Thursday after the company was asked by aviation regulator DGCA to curtail its services by half for eight weeks.

In morning trade, the stock had tanked nearly 10 percent.

The stock trimmed most of its early losses and settled at Rs 36.95, down 3.52 percent on the BSE. During the day, it tanked 9.66 percent to its 52-week low of Rs 34.60.

The 30-share BSE benchmark jumped 1,041.47 points or 1.87 percent to settle at 56,857.79.

About 10.42 lakh shares of the company were traded on the BSE.

Aviation regulator DGCA on Wednesday ordered SpiceJet to operate a maximum of 50 percent of its flights for eight weeks after several of its planes reported technical malfunction recently.

During these eight weeks, the budget carrier will be subjected to ''enhanced surveillance'' by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

On Thursday, SpiceJet said it is confident in scaling up its operations and addressing concerns of the DGCA.

On Wednesday, the airline said there will be no flight cancellations because of the regulator's order as it is already operating limited services ''due to the current lean travel season''.

''Given the findings of various spot checks, inspections, and the reply to the show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet, for the continued sustenance of safe and reliable transport service, the number of departures of SpiceJet is hereby restricted to 50 percent of the number of departures approved under summer schedule 2022 for eight weeks,'' the aviation regulator's order on Wednesday said.