Two-leasing entities owned by a major Chinese bank have submitted a request to India’s aviation regulator for deregistration and repossession of four Boeing planes of SpiceJet, regulatory documents from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reveal.
Dated July 9, 2026, the four IDERA (Irrevocable De-Registration and Export Request Authorization) Deregistration Request documents were submitted by Sky High LXXVIII and Sky High LXXX. Both lessors, owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), are based in Dublin.
Application to the DGCA seeks to reclaim four Boeing 737-8 Max jets leased by the budget carrier. Two of the four concerned jets are stationed in Hyderabad, while one each in Delhi and Amritsar. Commenting on the matter Law firm Sarin & Co., which specialises in aviation regulatory, said in a statement, under the IDERA framework, aircraft lessors can seek deregistration and repossession of leased aircraft in the event of a default, law firm The IDERA framework empowers lessors to get their aircraft deregistered, repossess and fly them out in cases like lease payment defaults.
The developments come after, according to Reuters, At least two other aircraft lessors have served payment default notices to the airline this year. While the Dublin-based lessors didn’t reveal reasons for doing so, SpiceJet in a statement, while acknowledging the developments, said that the concerned aircrafts were already non-operational for a prolonged period. A SpiceJet spokesperson said, “The deregistration of these aircraft will eliminate lease rental costs on assets that have remained non-operational for a prolonged period.”
The carrier has been scaling down its operations in recent times, while at the same time emerging as a laggard in On-Time Performance (OTP).
