Troubled airline Jet Airways on Tuesday announced that it had grounded another 15 planes, bringing the number of aircraft still in operations down to 29.
The grounding of more planes can only mean one thing: the lenders have not kept up with their funding commitments under the amended resolution plan that was agreed earlier last month.
Under the plan, the banks received 11.4 crore shares for a one rupee reduction in the airline’s outstanding debt of Rs 7,650 crore and airline founder Naresh Goyal stepped down from his position as chairman.
The banks were supposed to pump in Rs 1,500 crore against the security of additional assets of the airline.
Last week, aviation secretary Pradeep Kharola said the airline would start talks with lessors to get the grounded planes back in the air. The decision to ground another 15 planes means that the talks with the lessors have gone nowhere in the absence of promised funds from the banks.
With the airline’s fortunes going into a downward spin, Jet Airways has asked its pilots to opt for six-month sabbaticals.
The airline has also put out a new roster for its flight crew on its Boeing 737 aircraft. “Due to changes in operational requirement, B737 flight crew will be assigned on a 5-day working and 3-days off roster from April 11 to April 26,” the airline said.
“Additionally, flight crew seeking a long break/sabbatical between April-September 2019 may put in their requests to the fleet office for approval,” it added.
Pilots who haven’t been paid their full salaries for several months had threatened to go on strike from April 1 but then relented and extended the date till April 15. The decision to send the pilots on a long break is an admission that it doesn’t have the money to pay them salaries. The pilots on Tuesday wrote to the DGCA, demanding interest on their delayed salaries along with timely payment, saying the prevailing situation is not “ideal” for them to be in the cockpits
On Monday, the directorate general for civil aviation (DGCA) cleared a truncated summer schedule for Jet Airways till April 25. But this may have to be revised once again with the grounding of more planes.
The Telegraph
