The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has dismissed a plea from Jalan-Kalrock Consortium (JKC), the successful bidder of Jet Airways, challenging the sale of three aircraft.
Apart from JKC, the All India Jet Airways’ Officers and Staff Association also filed an appeal with the appellate tribunal.
Their appeals came after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in October asked the monitoring committee of the carrier to proceed with the sale of the Boeing 777-300 aircraft.
Earlier, Ace Aviation, which is the special purpose vehicle of Malta-based Challenge Group, had deposited Rs 50 crore for the purchase of these aircraft.
They have to make another payment of Rs 350 crore.
While JKC had appealed against the tribunal’s order, the NCLAT on Friday dismissed its plea.
Jalan-Kalrock Consortium had emerged as the winning bidder for the airline, which stopped flying in April 2019 and later underwent an insolvency resolution process. Shares of Jet Airways on Friday ended at Rs 58.11, a gain of 0.31 per cent over the last close.
The development comes at a time the government has said that close to 164 planes are lying idle at 15 airports in the country.
Most of the aircraft are grounded due to Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engine issues and there are also planes of non-operational airlines, including Go First and Jet Airways.
As per data shared by civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, these aircraft are lying idle at 15 airports.
Of the total of 164 planes, the highest number of grounded aircraft is at Delhi airport at 64, followed by Bangalore (27), Mumbai (24), and Chennai (20). The other airports are Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa (Mopa), Hyderabad, Jaipur, Juhu, Calcutta, Kannur, Mumbai, Nagpur and Raipur.
The grounded aircraft include those of IndiGo, SpiceJet, Go First, Air India, Zoom Air and Alliance Air.
Scindia has also asked airlines to self-regulate and keep passenger interests in mind while fixing airfares.
He said the government has no role in airfares. “As per prevailing regulations, airfare is neither established nor regulated by the government. The airline fare system runs in multiple levels (buckets or RBDs) which are in line with practice being followed globally.”
