When the Congress government, led by Narasimha Rao, liberalised the economy in 1991, many private entities entered the aviation industry to make it big. This resulted in the establishment of private sector players like ModiLuft, Damania Airways, Air Sahara, and East-West Airlines in the next 10 years. Jet Airways, led by Naresh Goyal, entered the aviation sector and started its first flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in 1993. Soon, Jet Airways turned out to be one of the top air carriers in the country; at its peak, it would fly more than 600 flights a day.
After enjoying success for 27 years, on April 17, 2019, short on cash Jet Airways, announced that it will no longer be carrying out domestic or international flights because it failed to secure funding from any sources, they failed to secure funding even from the lenders.
Expansion plan that proved to be fatal
Jet Airways' fall began soon after the airline decided to start its massive expansion internationally.
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The revival plan
A revival plan reportedly began in 2021. This occurred as the airline's new investors, a partnership between UK-based Kalrock Capital and businessman Murari Lal Jalan of the United Arab Emirates, waited for approvals from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
What happened after the revival plan was initiated?
Hiring spree
After the Jet revival plan was put in place, and the expectations were set that operations would begin in the first quarter of the year, somehow things didn't go as per plan. However, the Jet did announce the hirings in August of 2022.
Jet and the CEO announce the hirings in August 2022
The Jet went on a hiring spree, in August 2022, the CEO of Jet Airways tweeted about multiple job openings at the airways.
“@JetAirways now has a live careers portal where positions are listed and applications can be directly submitted," Sanjiv Kapoor, CEO of Jet Airways, said on Twitter.
“If you are current cabin crew on A320/B737 or any other aircraft type and would like to join the team creating history, we would love to hear from you,” Jet Airways said on Twitter.
The Jet flies again in May 2022
On Thursday, May 5, 2022, Jet Airways put out a tweet stating how they flew again. The Jet Airways flight took off probably after a wait of 3 years. That tweet made a lot of people hopeful of the operations at the Jet beginning again.
Update in September
Multiple media reports claimed the DGCA regulator issued an air operator certificate (AOC). The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium, the airline's new owners, complied with all the requirements of the resolution plan approved by the NCLT, which technically meant that the airlines would be able to fly again by the end of September, but that did not happen.
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Update in October
As per the reports, the State Bank of India (SBI) and other lenders asked the Jalan Kalrock Consortium to divide the proceeds from aircraft rentals that Jet Airways receives among the financing banks. These lenders approved the consortium's resolution plan in October 2020.
The resolution plan for Jet Airways' revival was finalised in October 2022, and its implementation was contingent upon the approval of the business plan, the validation of Jet Airways' air operator's permit, and the approval to re-allot all suspended slots, including bilateral and air traffic rights to Jet.
Just like this, you will find a plenty of stories online, giving you different dates and times describing when the Jet Airway flight will take off, but nothing has happened.
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Jet Airways' engine is now stuck in limbo and reminds of the old scooters of the past, which constantly start and stop, need a bit of kicking, a bit of pushing, a bit of towing, but never really take off.
Update in November
Amid the continuing uncertainty over the fate of grounded Jet Airways, the Jalan Kalrock Consortium said on Friday it has not breached any terms of the insolvency resolution plan and might take difficult near-term decisions to manage cashflows.
The consortium's resolution plan was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in June last year, but the airline, which also got its air operator certificate revalidated by aviation regulator DGCA in May this year, is yet to start operations.
"While we await the handover of the company as per the NCLT process, the longer-than-expected time being taken for the same may result in some difficult but necessary near-term decisions to manage our cashflows to secure the future while the airline is still not in our possession," the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC) said in a statement.
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Update from the CEO Sanjiv Kapoor on November 18
Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor tweeted on Friday about the airline's failed turnaround while reassuring that no staff members had been fired. However, he did note that due to circumstances "beyond our control," the airlines had to make some short-term decisions. To clarify, Kapoor said, “These are all good people who have been working hard to try to do what has never been done: revive an airline that has gone bankrupt,” said Kapoor in further clarification. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, some short-term difficult choices had to be made because the ownership transfer timeline was slipping.
So, what is happening, and why is the Jet Airways flight not taking off?
When Jet Airways went bankrupt, they owed various people Rs 8,000 crore. So, a group of investors came together and decided to help the airways. Basically, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, decided to pay Rs 1375 crore to buy the airline. Out of the total of Rs1375 crore, the group of investors decide to use Rs 475 crore to settle employee dues and with the rest of the money they would, but they had not originally considered paying off PF's and gratuity. But as per the latest order of NCLAT, new owners had to clear all PF dues of employees before they can fly again, so that means the Jet Airways will take bit longer to fire up.
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Will the consortium pay the extra money?
The consortium has said that they will clear all the dues within the stipulated Rs. 475 crore. This means that the consortium is not willing to spend more money than that, which leaves them with one choice: pay the bank less and clear the dues of the employees.
But, if the consortium does this, it will only lead to a bigger problem. The upset banks will go to the courts, and all this will now be a big part of the big, lengthy court battle, which will leave everyone's fate hanging, including the employees, the banks, the owners, and the take-off of Jet Airways.
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New bad news
Offices of Kalrock Capital, one of the companies that is bailing out Jet Airways, were raided in Switzerland and Austria in a money laundering case. However, Kalrock Capital brushed aside this piece of news and said that it won't impact the takeover and deal, which will still be good to go ahead with. “These investigations have no impact on the acquisition of Jet Airways,” Kalrock Capital Partners, Fritsch’s investment company, said in a statement.
Will a partner being involved in money laundering, or at least being under investigation, be a problem for the whole buyout deal? Well, that would be a bridge we cross when we arrive there, because as of now consortium has still not delivered on their basic promises.
As per the multiple media reports, the lenders are not sure if they will get paid in full anytime soon; what that means is the consortium can't take over the company completely until they make the whole payment. So, if they can't take over the company, it also means they can't fly.
Jet Airways doesn't have the slots anymore
Jet Airways in its hay days had 750 slots. Basically, slots are time allotted to the airways. The Jet had all the important time slots, but after it went bankrupt, all its slots were given to competitors.
What happens next?
So, if the consortium manages to pay the dues in full, it must fight for the slots, get aircraft in order, and hope that the operations are in full swing by the end of this month. But to pull off all this in, say, the next 15 days is a mammoth task for anyone. Let alone Jet Airways.
