- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday (22) approved the revival plan for Jet Airways, which was submitted by a consortium of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Murari Lal Jalan and Kalrock Capital. According to a report in Khaleej Times, the move cleared the way for the grounded carrier’s long-pending relaunch in a time frame of less than six months.
The top bankruptcy court approved the resolution plan for the airline which was forced to halt operations in April 2019 as it faced humongous losses to the tune of Rs 80 billion ($1,079 million) as a result of tough race with its low-cost rivals.
The NCLT has given 90 days to the director-general of civil aviation and aviation ministry to provide slots to the debt-ridden Jet Airways, which was once India’s largest private carrier. According to the Khaleej Times report, 30 airports had agreed to give back the slots used by Jet before it crumbled.
During the good times, Jet had about 700 time slots that had allowed to land and take off from busy airports like Mumbai and Delhi. Following the suspension of its operations, Jet’s slots were given to other airlines.
Khaleej Times cited sources saying more talks would be required to decide new domestic and international routes for Jet, which had operated a fleet of over 120 planes connecting several domestic and international destinations like Singapore, London and Dubai.
Jet 2.0 will start with 20 routes
Sources close to Kalrock-Jalan consortium said that Jet would fly again by the end of the calendar year. To start with, it will run operation on 20 routes with 20 narrow-body and five wide-bodied planes. The initial routes will mainly be domestic but service will be offered on some international routes as well since Jet has a strong brand value, the Khaleej Times report added.
Jet will also re-employ people who have remained loyal to the airline and rope in more personnel with its expansion, the report added.
Investors were hopeful about Jet emerging successfully from a restructuring, sending its shares going up by a whopping 316 per cent in 2020 despite the crisis. Over the last few days, too, the carrier has seen a rise, trimming its loss in 2021 to 18 per cent, the report added.
