This Friday (May 19) will be an important day for the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), which was the winning bidder for Jet Airways. That’s the last day of the air operator’s permit (AOP) issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The AOP essentially allows an airline to start commercial operations.
However, Jet has not placed any request for renewal of the AOP, said a source, even though any such request is usually done at least a month prior to the expiry date of the licence.
This essentially means that more than 30 months after being declared the winning bidder, JKC’s plan to run Jet is as good as buried. A mail sent to JKC remained unanswered at the time of going to press.
“To start flight operations, it takes 1-2 months and before that to happen the airline needs to take slots, arrange ground handling, aircraft parking and then commence bookings. Just to take a slot takes two months. Delhi-Mumbai route will have no slots available now,” said an industry expert.
Factors like financial strength of the airline, management team, aircraft inventory, maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO), number of pilots are taken into account before an AOP is awarded.
Planned as a full-service carrier, Jet had earlier decided to commence commercial operations around September-October of 2022. The Naresh Goyal-founded Jet, which was once the biggest carrier in India, halted operations on April 17, 2019, due to rising financial liabilities.
The airline was taken to bankruptcy proceedings by its lenders soon after.
JKC, meanwhile, is locked in a battle of another kind. May 14 brought curtains to the 180-day period allotted to JKC by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in January this year. It was supposed to make payments of `185 crore to the financial creditors following which the management control of the airline was to be transferred to JKC.
Ten days before the end of the given term, JKC filed a fresh petition with the NCLT against State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction and Ashish Chhawchharia, the resolution professional, in the first week of May. The petition was registered with the Mumbai bench on May 9 and a hearing is scheduled for June 6.
Sources say JKC is yet to make the payments to the lenders and to the former employees of the airline which include gratuity payments and other benefits which has allowed the lenders to disallow the process of handing over of the airline’s management control.
Jet’s uncertainty to take flight once again coincides with the aviation industry coming under a cloud of unpredictability after multiple aircraft leasing companies were forced to approach the courts to repossess their aircraft following the grounding of Go First. The Wadia Group-controlled airline has sought protection from the NCLT against its financial creditors and aircraft lessors to buy time for settling the issue of non-supply of engines by Pratt & Whitney.
JKC and the management of Jet Airways, led by the CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor, who in April quit the airline, planned to take the aircraft leasing route to revive Jet Airways. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Jet Airways is in possession of a single Boeing 737-800.
Late last month, without providing any details, JKC maintained that it remains committed to the revival of Jet Airways and that its executive committee will oversee the responsibilities of Kapoor until a suitable replacement is in place.