Mumbai: The consortium of UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and London’s Kalrock Capital has won the bid to revive Jet Airways. The group said Monday that it expects to start operating Jet Airways by the summer of 2021. The consortium is awaiting the NCLT and other regulatory approvals, including reinstatement of slots and bilateral traffic rights. These will be approved by the Civil Aviation Ministry and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). It is also planning to launch dedicated freighter services once the carrier takes off the ground again.
The committee of creditors (CoC) has already approved the airline’s revival plan submitted by the consortium in October.
Jet Airways was grounded April 17 due to liquidity crisis and subsequently went into administration in June 2019.
“As per the resolution plan, Jet Airways intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. The Jet 2.0 program is aimed at reviving the past glory of Jet Airways. There will be fresh set of processes and systems to ensure greater efficiency,” the consortium said in a statement.
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“If everything goes as per plan and the Consortium receives the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) and regulatory approvals on time, Jet Airways would be back in the skies by the summer of 2021,” it added.
The consortium had evaluated the option of starting a new airline. However, some of the inherent strengths of Jet Airways like the optimal flight slots, brand value and reputation for best-in-class inflight service and safety, giving Jet 2.0 an edge over others, were too tempting to resist, the release added.
The consortium has decided that it would be advantageous to re-energise and start Jet Airways on a clean slate. It said that the airline company had set new benchmarks in the aviation industry. So the efforts will be to replicate and better those benchmarks.
“Jet Airways has been a brand with a glorious history of over 25 years. It is the vision of the Consortium to put Jet Airways back in the skies at the earliest opportunity. We aim to re-energise the brand by infusing energy, warmth, and vibrancy into it. We want to make the brand bigger and better,” Manoj Narender Madnani, Board Member of Jalan Kalrock Consortium, said.
The Jet 2.0 hubs will remain in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore like before. However, the revival plan proposes to support tier 2 and tier 3 cities by creating sub-hubs there. This would boost the economy in these cities. It will help Jet Airways stand back on its feet fast. It will also support the overall vision of the government to promote aviation business through tier 2/ tier 3 cities in India, the release said.
Besides, the consortium is also planning to increase cargo services to include dedicated freighter service. It is a segment currently under-served by any Indian carrier. The release also said given India’s position as a leading centre for global vaccine manufacture, cargo services have never been more required.
The aviation sector was deeply hit by COVID-19. However, that helped the sector as it underwent substantial correction and created that opportune time for the consortium members to enter the sector, as per the release.
The consortium’s biggest strength is human capital, and it is putting together the best of aviation professionals with global experience for running and managing the operations of Jet 2.0, the release added.