A day after the lenders put together a revival plan for Jet Airways, which involves the stepping down of its promoter-chairman Naresh Goyal and the banks providing an immediate funding of Rs 1,500 crore, the airline assured the government of bringing back into service 40 grounded aircraft by the end of April.
The cash-strapped airline is currently flying only 35 aircraft out of its total fleet strength of 119 due to non-payment to lessors. Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Tuesday said that no more aircraft would be grounded by Jet Airways’ lessors. He also said that his ministry may consider allocating Jet’s landing slots to other airlines to operate on interim basis.
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The Jet management, including CEO Vinay Dube, earlier in the day met civil aviation ministry officials along with the lenders to give an operational plan of the airline in the wake of the new revival plan. The civil aviation secretary said that Jet will have to give specific details of each aircraft returning in service after the capital infusion by lenders.
“It is an aggressive target for Jet Airways. The airline will have to give details like which aircraft on which date will be back in service by next week. We aim to have maximum number of aircraft in service during the peak holiday season so that passengers do not suffer,” Kharola said.
According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Jet Airways is currently operating less than 140 flights a day — down from an average of about 650 flights a day in March 2018.
According to the revival plan for Jet devised by the lenders and approved by the airline’s board on Monday, apart from the resignation of Goyal and his wife from the board, one nominee of Etihad Airways will also step down, while two nominee directors representing lenders will be inducted into the board.
Upon conversion of their debt into equity at `1, the lenders will become the largest stakeholder in the company with around 51% stake while the stake of Goyal will come down to around 25% from the current 51%. The stake of Etihad will also come down by half to 12%.
An interim management committee will be formed to manage and monitor the daily operations and cash flow of the company. The lenders will invite expression of interest for bids by April 9 and the deadline for binding bids will be April 30, while a new investor is expected to be on board by May 31.