A Delhi High Court judge has reserved its order on a B&B Air Acquisition’s claim to ground five aircraft leased by it to SpiceJet until its Certificate of Registration was cancelled by aviation regulator DGCA.
B&B states that its lease agreement with the airline was terminated in December last year over alleged non-payment of dues, including rent of the aircraft. After termination of lease, the company wrote to DGCA to cancel registration of the aircraft, but the regulator did not do so on the ground that the registration has not been returned by SpiceJet.
The DGCA requested SpiceJet return the Certificate of Registration and deactivate the transponder 'mode S' codes of the five aircraft, but till date the airline has not returned the certificate nor deactivated the transponder codes as it was still operating the aircraft. Under the Cape Town Convention, the DGCA is bound to have taken action within five days of sending its January 9 letter to SpiceJet, B&B claimed in court. DGCA stated that the application was in process and the entire procedure would take more time than five days as it has to also inspect air worthiness of the aircraft before allowing them to leave the country.