The Jet Airways Employee Consortium and London-based AdiGroup will together bid for 75 per cent of the grounded carrier through the NCLT process, rekindling hopes that the airline could take to the skies again.

“We are delighted that AdiGroup stepped up to join us in this challenging yet exciting journey to revive Jet Airways,” said Ashwani Tyagi of Jet Airways Employee Consortium.

The consortium has informed the resolution professional overseeing the insolvency process of their interest in the carrier.

AdiGroup chairman Sanjay Viswanathan said the combine expected to make an investment of Rs 2,500-5,000 crore. He said the exact figures would emerge once complete financial details about the company’s liability are known. However, he did not reveal the source of the funding.

Viswanathan said AdiGroup will hold a 49 per cent stake in the airline, the employees’ consortium will own 26 per cent and the rest will be with the Indian lenders.

There is a 49 per cent cap on FDI in the aviation sector.

The debt-laden company became the first domestic airliner to go into bankruptcy after the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an insolvency petition filed by the SBI on behalf of 26 lenders on June 20.

The airline owes Rs 8,500 crore to banks and around Rs 25,000 crore in arrears to vendors, lessors and employees.

“Jet Airways Employee Consortium and AdiGroup are delighted to announce their partnership to bid for acquisition of 75 per cent of Jet Airways through the NCLT process. This is a new dawn in the history of India aviation of operating an airline through an employee initiative programme where every single employee of Jet Airways will become an owner of the airline,” a joint statement from the consortium and AdiGroup said.

However, aviation analyst Mark Martin wondered “what is left in the airline that can be revived as prime slots in airport such as Delhi and Mumbai have been allotted to other carriers, lessors have taken the planes and leased them to others, routes have been given away. There is little clarity on the sum Jet Airways owes and how much hair cut the lenders would be taking.”

Viswanathan said: “We have been informed by the resolution professional that they need two to three weeks for the company’s book to be audited. We expect the EoI to be called by the end of July, the due diligence can happen in August and by the end of that month we should be ready with the final outcome. In September, we bring in the capital which is the financial closure and first of October we can fly.”

“We have asked the ministry that the licence for the airline to fly be kept alive as it expires on July 16... we need the prime slots back, we should be able to get the aircraft back… these are some of the crucial things that will ensure that the airline is able to fly again,” he said.

He claimed to have got assurances from the government that Jet Airways’ slots and flying rights would be returned. Earlier, these were distributed among its rivals, including SpiceJet and IndiGo.

The consortium hopes to get back 69 of Jet Airways’ aircraft. The airline originally had about 120 planes in its fleet. But about 100 of these have been de-registered. Once de-registered, the planes can be taken out of the country and leased to other airlines.

Tyagi, who is one of Jet’s senior-most pilots and has been with the airline for 18 years, said Jet was like a family to him and it was a “challenging yet exciting journey to revive Jet Airways”.

AdiGro Aviation, an arm of the London-based AdiGroup, had earlier offered to invest Rs 2,500 crore for a 24.9 per cent stake in Jet Airways. The company was part of the revival plans that involved Etihad Airways and Hinduja Group. But the talks broke down, and the lenders approached the insolvency courts.