As Jet Airways’ founder and chairman Naresh Goyal and his wife stepped down from the board of the company, rival airline SpiceJet’s boss Ajay Singh on Monday called it a ‘sad day for Indian aviation’. Low-cost carriers SpiceJet and Indigo, are widely regarded as part of the reason behind Jet Airways’ fall.
“We urgently need to address structural challenges that make India’s airlines uncompetitive to airlines around the world,” SpiceJet co-founder Ajay Singh said after the news of Naresh Goyal’s exit from the airline he founded 25 years back was confirmed.
He also added that Naresh and Anita Goyal had made India proud by launching a truly world class airline, Reuters cited him as saying. Ajay Singh also said that this is a wake-up call for Indian policymakers.
A resolution plan for Jet Airways is already underway which requires Goyals to step down. Previously, lenders, under the resolution nodded to a fresh funds infusion to cash-strapped Jet Airways. Rs 1,500 crore will be added to the airline. After the resolution plan was passed, SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar had said that he hopes for the normal functioning of the airline. He had assured that the airline’s 23,000 employees were not under the risk of losing their jobs. “The effort would be to restore normalcy, and then sell Jet Airways as a going concern,” he had said in an interview to CNBC TV18.
Earlier, a senior government official had said that negotiations between creditors and the company would yield better result than the airline moving the court for insolvency proceedings. “I think creditors and the debtor are in discussion. That is the best process,” Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas had said, PTI reported.