India’s SpiceJet to appeal De Havilland $43m lawsuit win

SpiceJet has said it will appeal against a ruling at the High Court of Justice in London, which ordered that De Havilland Aircraft of Canada be entitled to recover US$42.9m in damages from the airline and terminate a DHC-8-Q400 purchase agreement. The Canadian manufacturer sued the Indian low-cost carrier in a conflict stemming from a purchase agreement signed in September 2017 for 25 of the Bombardier Aerospace turboprops. The airline subsequently paid for and took delivery of five of them but halted pre-delivery payments for most of the remainder, according to De Havilland. The claim alleged that only US$7m in down payments were made on these remaining orders. SpiceJet argued in court that its payment obligations had been suspended by a change order the two companies signed in April 2019. This agreement’s suspension of scheduled delivery dates also meant suspended payment liability, it claimed. De Havilland argued that this was not the case. Story has more.<br/>