BENGALURU, Aug 14 Reuters Indian budget carrier SpiceJet reported a drop in firstquarter profit on Wednesday, as it flew fewer passengers amid legal and financial troubles.

The company reported a standalone profit of 1.50 billion rupees 17.9 million for the quarter ended June 30, down 26.7 from last year.

This excludes the business of its subsidiaries, including SpiceXpress and Logistics.

SpiceJet has been struggling to scale up operations as some lessors took it to court to settle unpaid dues, and also requested that the country39;s aviation regulator deregister their planes.

This also cost the company market share, which fell to 4.2 in AprilJune from 5.2 last year.

The company is making attempts to restore full operations and boost capacity, including reaching settlements with some lessors and raising funds. It most recently announced a fundraise of 360 million.

As of March, the airline had an operational fleet of 39 aircraft, mostly Boeing 737s and a few Bombardier Q400 jets.

The number of passengers flown by SpiceJet in the reporting quarter fell 17 from last year to about 1.7 million people, according to data from India39;s aviation regulator a smaller drop than that seen throughout the previous fiscal year.

Its total revenue from operations fell 15.3 to 16.96 billion rupees, its smallest drop since the quarter ended March 31, 2023.

SpiceJet reported its third and fourthquarter results together in July after delaying them for unspecified reasons. It…