Crippled by mounting losses, the airline was forced to ground all flights in April 2019.
New Delhi:
Jet Airways is all set to resume domestic operations with its first flight from New Delhi to Mumbai by Quarter 1 of 2022, while its international flights will be operational by the second half of next year, the company said today.
The process of reviving the grounded carrier is on track with the existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) already under process for revalidation, said the company in a statement.
“Jet Airways 2.0 aims at restarting domestic operations by Q1-2022, and short haul international operations by Q3/Q4 2022. Our plan is to have 50+ aircraft in 3 years and 100+ in 5 years which also fits perfectly well with the short-term and long-term business plan of the Consortium,” said UAE businessman Murari Lal Jalan, lead member of the London-based Jalan Kalrock Consortium and the proposed Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways.
“It is the first time in the history of Aviation that an airline grounded for more than 2 years is being revived and we are looking forward to being a part of this historic journey,” Mr Jalan said.
Crippled by mounting losses, the airline, once India’s biggest private carrier, was forced to ground all flights in April 2019, owing billions to lenders and leaving thousands without a job.
The company is working closely with authorities and airport coordinators on slot allocation, required airport infrastructure, and night parking.
Jet Airways’ revival plan was approved by the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) in June. All the creditors, said the company, will be settled as per the plan in the coming months.
The bankruptcy court’s go-ahead came several months after Jet’s creditors had given their approval in October last year to the revival plan submitted by the consortium.
In its new avatar, Jet Airways will be headquartered in Delhi NCR with its senior management working from the Corporate Office at Gurgaon.
“Jet Airways will continue to have strong and significant presence in Mumbai where it will work from its ‘Global One’ office in Kurla. Jet Airways also has a state-of-the-art training centre located at Global One, which will be retained and used for in-house training for the Jet Airways team,” said Capt Gaur, its acting CEO.
An all narrow-body aircraft fleet will be leased to restart its domestic operations.
“Jet Airways has already hired 150+ full time employees on its payroll and we are looking to onboard another 1,000+ employees FY 2021-22 across categories,” Capt Gaur added.
The hiring, he added, will be in a phased manner and will be strictly on merit, to meet the operational requirements of the airline.
