The crisis at Jet Airways is showing no signs of receding with its pilots now approaching the Prime Minister for redressal even as rival Spice Jet is hovering over the grounded planes of the troubled carrier, which holds some plum landing slots at the Delhi airport.
Jet on Friday suspended 13 more international routes till the end of April, including its Calcutta-Dhaka flight.
Even the ongoing attempts by lenders to sew up a revival plan may get derailed as bank unions have said they will oppose such moves.
The lenders are looking to take a substantial stake in the debt-laden airline till the arrival of a new promoter.
Jet Airways’ pilots have sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to instruct the management of the debt-laden airline to release their pending salaries.
“We fear that the airline is on the verge of collapse and this will leave thousands of people unemployed and change the dynamics of aviation as fares will increase because of the reduction in capacity and people will face major inconvenience,” the National Aviators Guild, a body of Jet pilots, said in the letter to the Prime Minister.
“The pilots and engineers are now almost three months behind salaries... and facing financial hardships with no relief in sight,” the letter said.
“Stress in this section of employees can compromise safety and is not at all desirable in a profession that demands the highest levels of alertness and safety,” it added.
The pilots union of Jet Airways has threatened to stop flying from April 1 if their salaries are not paid by March 31. So far, over 150 pilots have quit the sinking airline and more could do so in the coming days. However, it is not clear whether they would be joining SpiceJet or Indigo.
SpiceJet move
Sources said SpiceJet was planning to lease Jet Airways’ aircraft to fill up the gap following the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX planes. They said about 50 planes were on offer and negotiations were on for the deal. However, it is not clear how many planes the airlines would be taking on lease.
“In order to fill the gap from the reduced fleet size after the grounding of the Max fleet, the company is in discussion with various lessors globally to induct aircraft,” the airline said in a filing to the BSE.
The airline was forced to ground 12 of its B737 MAX planes because of safety concern following the twin crash of such planes in the past five months.
SpiceJet expects to get a better deal if they lease the grounded planes. However, Jet holds premium landing and takeoff slots at the Delhi airport, which are being targeted by rivals. The slots could be sold out or retained for the investor putting in money into the airline.
Bank union ire
The Jet Airways bail-out plan suggested by a consortium of lenders led by the SBI could run into trouble with banks’ union opposing the plan and threatening to scuttle the move if the management went ahead with the measure.
C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA), told The Telegraph that “we have different options to oppose the move ….let the management take the first step and then we will act”.
He said, “The lenders should be focusing on banking and not on the management or revival of companies or airlines. If the debtor is unable to pay, they should be placed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and whatever assets they have should be sold and the debt recovered.”
“If the SBI-led lenders go ahead with the plan, it would only encourage other corporate houses to mismanage the firms and pressure will mount on the state-owned banks to take them over,” Venkatachalam said.
SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar along with aviation secretary Pradip Singh Kharola and Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, met finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday to work out a resolution formula for the debt-laden Jet Airways.
