Gulf-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and London’s Kalrock Capital consortium said it plans to restart operations of Jet Airways by 2021
With the Jet Airways brand, the airline will proceed. Jet Airways aims to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart foreign operations, as per the resolution plan. If everything goes according to plan and the Consortium receives the NCLT and regulatory approvals on time, by the summer of 2021, Jet Airways will be back in the sky, a statement said.
The consortium’s settlement strategy was recently approved by Jet’s creditors’ committee. It is also pending approval by India’s NCLT bankruptcy court. The resolution proceedings lasted for more than a year until Jet sought a new investor in the consortium of Jalan-Kalrock. In April of last year, Jet stopped running, stripped of cash and burdened by debt and dues.
Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru will remain the hubs of Jet 2.0 as before. By establishing sub-hubs in such areas, the revival plan proposes to support Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the statement said.
Under Jet, the consortium aims to commence a dedicated air freight operation.
Jet Airways, started 25 years ago by Naresh Goyal, ended all operations by the management after all the major banks and plane lessors rejected their funding request. Jet Airways reportedly had more than $1 Billion in debt to the banks, funders, and lessors and has been experiencing a hit for a long time with huge losses incurred in the last four consecutive quarters.
A lot of consortiums, alliances tried to submit bids for the defunct airlines but they got rejected. The bidders included Hinduja Group, South American Brand Synergy Group which owns the Aviance Airlines but it didn’t work out. But now after 1.5 years, we can see some hope with the approval of Jalan and Kalrock Captial consortium.
Jet Airways was grounded on 17th April 2019 and it owes over Rs. 8,200 crore due to financial creditors alone. As per the website, creditors have filed claims worth over Rs 30,000 crore. The airline was dragged to NCLT after months of struggling to get it functional and was admitted to the tribunal on June 20. Meanwhile, the slots of the beleaguered airline have been assigned to other airlines.
