Can take-off in 2-3 weeks if we get fund infusion: Jet Airways sources
After flying for 25 years, Jet Airways Wednesday announced temporary grounding of operations after the lenders declined a Rs 400-crore lifeline, putting at stake 20,000 jobs and thousands of crores in passenger refunds, dues to vendors and over Rs 8,500 crore to banks.
After flying for 25 years, Jet Airways Wednesday announced temporary grounding of operations after the lenders declined a Rs 400-crore lifeline, putting at stake 20,000 jobs and thousands of crores in passenger refunds, dues to vendors and over Rs 8,500 crore to banks.
Founded by Naresh Goyal, who began as a general sales agent to a host of international airlines with travel agency Jetair, the full-service carrier served tens of millions of passengers for over two-and-half decades, before becoming the seventh domestic carrier to shutter operations in the past five years.
However, the once-premier airline flew into deeper turbulence-second in its history after the 2010 crisis-- after four back-to-back quarterly losses, leaving it gasping for financial breath and forcing it to default on payments to nearly all--from banks to lessors, to employees, and eventually leading to the shutdown from tonight as its fleet strength has crimped to just about five planes from 123 in December last.
Even as shares of Jet Airways slipped for a second day in a row, and employees wondered about their fate, sources at the airlines said that they might be able to take-off against in 2-3 weeks provided they get a fund infusion.
Sources told Zee Media that Jet Airways will need to send a revised scheduled to the DCGA for approval and will have to activate ticketing agents and other partners again. They currently still have 70-75 aircrafts which haven’t deregistered yet and even the 26 deregistered. Currently, Jet Airways has around Rs 2000 crore of pending ticket payments.
The officers and employees union of the grounded Jet Airways Thursday sought government intervention to avert a Kingfisher-like collapse of the carrier, which could not take off after halting operations temporarily in October 2012.
Alleging some "motives" behind the series of developments at the carrier, which eventually forced it to shutter services temporarily from Wednesday night, Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association president Kiran Pawaskar also demanded a probe, preferably by the national investigation agency CBI.
After flying for over 25 years, Jet Airways was grounded last night when its final flight, a Boeing 737, touched down at the Mumbai airport early Thursday after departing from Amritsar.
The country's oldest private airline flew its maiden flight nearly 26 years ago from the city airport to Ahmedabad as an air taxi operator.
"The situation is very bad for employees. As many as 16,000 permanent employees don't have work today. I told the management that efforts should be made to resume operations as early as possible," Pawaskar, who is also an NCP lawmaker, said asking why the airline did not clear employees dues before suspending services.
Airlines' chief executive Vinay Dube had Wednesday said the airline did not have an "answer" at present on the fate of its employees during the on-going stake sale process.
The airline senior management, pilots and engineers have not be been paid since January while the other categories of employees have also not received their March salaries.
"Employees are ready to work. They are experts at what they do because they have been working for 25 years. We are not going to run away. We will remain here," Pawaskar said.
He said the SBI-led consortium, which now the controls the management, can resume operations after requesting the Prime Minister's Office or finance ministry for the required funds.
The consortium had rejected the airline's appeal for Rs 983 crore lifeline, of which Rs 240 alone were to be used to disburse the pending salaries, Pawaskar added.
He also asked why banks have not cleared the promised Rs 1,500 core loan to the airline even two weeks after chairman Naresh Goyal stepped down from the airline two weeks ago--the main condition of the lenders to lend more money.
He also said none of the jobs are lost so far and that the employees will continue to claim salaries as long as they are with Jet Airways.
Efforts are on to formulate a plan to minimise passenger inconvenience in view of Jet Airways crisis, said Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola here on Thursday. Kharola, who held a high-level meeting with the officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and representatives of various airport operators, said: "We had a series of meetings today with airlines, airport operators, DGCA, and AAI. "About 75 planes have been grounded in the domestic sector in the last few months. DGCA is monitoring the situation. We have been able to induct around 55 planes as of now," he told media persons, adding the current deficit is of 15-20 planes. Kharola said that slot allocation would be done fairly. "Slots will be allocated for a period of three months.
Airlines getting extra capacity will get preference in slot allocation," he said. "Airlines will be able to induct 30 planes by July. Some airlines are in talks with lessors to get 20-30 ex-Jet planes. We have told airlines to not resort to predatory pricing. We are hopeful to cover the current capacity deficit in one to two months," he said. The public sector carrier -- Air India -- has already introduced special fares for the passengers hit by the current disruption. About 160 slots of Jet Airways are vacant at Delhi, and 280 at Mumbai.