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| Edited By: DNA |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 27, 2019, 05:55 AM IST
Lenders of Jet Airways have moved into the cockpit of the ailing airline, and flyers’ concerns over the airline’s operations are likely to be buried soon. The airline is seeking to clear part of the dues to aircraft leasing firms and pay salary arrears to pilots with the funds raised from lenders. It hopes to redeploy several grounded aircraft back into operations and minimise cancellations, going forward.
On Monday, Jet said it would leverage the Rs 1,500 crore of interim finance received from lenders to partly clear pending dues towards lessors, vendors and employees in a phased manner. Jet is currently operating around one-fourth of its aircraft -- out of the 119 it had before it began grounding them.
On the flip side, Jet’s woes had also impacted the airfares. Once Jet gets back on the tarmac, airfares that firmed up are likely to drop. Apart from Jet’s recent troubles, other airlines were also struggling to operate additional aircraft despite the increased summer vacation demand due to an acute shortage of pilots and unavailability of leased aircraft. Recently, nine domestic airlines reported capacity utilisation above 80% in February, which is closer to the saturation level. Both Jet’s efforts to streamline its operations and SpiceJet’s move to lease aircraft will push down airfares.
