The Ireland-based owners of three Boeing 737s have approached the aviation regulator DGCA to de-register the planes used by the budget carrier SpiceJet. The deregistration request has been filed by leasing company Awas Ireland Ltd against three Boeing 737 aircraft after the airline failed to pay lease rentals.

Two of these planes are parked at Varanasi airport and one is at Amristar airport. The registration numbers of the aircraft are VT-SYW, VTSYY and VT-SYX. Jet Airways previously owned the three aircraft. In 2019, these aircraft were leased by SpiceJet. The deregistration request has been filed under Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisations, or IDERA. The request is usually filed when payment negotiations between a lessor and an airline fail.

After the lessor files a request under IDERA, the DGCA checks if the aircraft has any pending dues from tax authorities and airports, and if none are found, the de-registration is allowed, officials said. SpiceJet said it plans to replace all its older Boeing aircraft with the new Max model in a phased manner. The airline will induct around 20 new Max planes into its fleet between now and the next calendar year. “As part of this modernisation plan, we are returning older aircraft in a phased manner, including these three aircraft (leased from the Irish firm). These returns have been planned and will not have any impact on our operations,” the company said.

SpiceJet emphasised that it had already returned 12 old Boeing aircraft to lessors in the last calendar year. “We have 13 MAX aircraft in our fleet and the new inductions would begin from October 2022,” the airline said. Over the last one month, the airline faced multiple technical snags, forcing the regulator to order the airline to cut its flights by 50 per cent. It has also heightened surveillance on the airline’s safety culture and is doing spot checks on the airline’s fleet.