Troubled carrier Jet Airways may look to resize its team of pilots soon — a large chunk of whom currently fly ATRs—with a smaller number of pilots, sources close to the development told FE. The airline is also reportedly in discussions with US leasing and aircraft finance company GECAS to return 23 of its Boeing 737 narrow body aircraft, some of them grounded, sources said. These persons indicated the airline is understood to be finding it hard to meet the lease payment obligations.
In a response to FE query on pilots and returning of aircraft, a spokesperson for Jet said, “Your information is speculative and incorrect. Jet Airways urges the publication to refrain from such misleading reporting”.
The team could be smaller by around 40-50 pilots, sources said, and FE could not get a definite number. Jet has about 1,800 pilots and is understood to have requested some cabin crew to take leave without pay at its bases in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and to apply for the same between November 1 and December 20. This was done through a mail to the employees dated October 12. When asked for comments the management said,
“Leave without pay (LWP) is part of any corporate policy that allows employees to avail leave for any personal necessities. Likewise, Jet Airways too, has over the years allowed employees to avail of LWP in a voluntary manner, after giving due consideration. Typically, with multiple crew (in-flight) bases, crew rostering during the festive season (October- December), is better planned if leave requests are budgeted well in advance. Based on feedback received, we have therefore opened this up for our crew to apply, as yet another employee-friendly initiative.
This particular time the window for this category leave taken is up to 50 days. The objective of the initiative is to achieve a better equilibrium between work/life balance and operational commitments. Moreover, LWP is sanctioned keeping the operational requirements in mind and is sanctioned for variety of reasons such as family medical emergencies, maternity leave, study, commercial pilot licence (CPL), etc”.
The airline that earlier told its pilots that it is mulling grounding of 23 of its narrow-body aircraft, is now understood to be in discussions with the lessor, US-based GECAS, to take these aircraft back on ‘as is’ basis, source in the know of the development told FE. In a separate discussion with leasing firms Jet is looking to monetise its aircraft assets to raise up to $800 million in a sale and lease back deal for the aircraft it owns.
Jet is cutting back on operations, sources said, with a fewer number of flights per day. Jet has a fleet of 124 aircraft. As on June 2018, Jet Airways has a gross debt of Rs 8,620 crore, of which Rs 1,968 crore is aircraft related. The airline’s accumulated losses stand at Rs 10,878 crore, and it is currently working on a turnaround plan to save Rs 2,000 crore over a couple of years through several initiatives that the board has approved of in August.