Jalan Kalrock Consortium, the winning bidder for Jet Airways, expects to restart operations of the defunct airline in four to six months after receiving approval from the NCLT for its resolution plan.

Jet Airways, the once-storied full-service carrier, was grounded in early 2019 and is undergoing proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Against the backdrop of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) taking a final call on the resolution plan for the airline, the winning consortium’s lead member Murari Lala Jalan said “everything is on track”as far as the revival efforts for the carrier are concerned.

Stressing that he is very positive about the Indian aviation sector, which is recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Jalan said that initially Jet Airways will resume flying with around 25 aircraft.

“After NCLT decision, we will be able to start the airline within four to six months. I am very positive about Indian aviation and the future is bright,” Jalan said during a telephonic interaction.

“We are very hopeful that it (NCLT nod) will come,” he said, adding that a delay of one or two months here and there would not make a difference to such a big thing as reviving the airline.

In October last year, the consortium comprising UK-based Kalrock Capital and Jalan, a UAE-based entrepreneur, emerged as the winning bidder for Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 17, 2019.

According to Jalan, the airline is likely to resume services with roughly 25 planes as per the revival plan submitted to the committee of creditors (CoC) within this year. The fleet is expected to be a mix of narrow-body and wide-body planes.

“We will start with passenger services. All options, either it is cargo, or international (services) or anything, are open,” Jalan said.

Creditor approval

The CoC led by State Bank of India (SBI) has approved the resolution plan and under the IBC, the clearance of the NCLT is required before implementing the plan.

Noting that for resuming overseas services, a lot of things needed to be worked out, Jalan made it clear that while there will be hundreds of things, including getting a lot of permissions, the consortium’s “interest is to come (bring Jet Airways) to the sky”.