The Supreme Court on Thursday exercised its extraordinary constitutional powers and ordered the liquidation of grounded air carrier Jet Airways' assets. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra set aside the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) decision upholding the resolution plan of Jet Airways and approved the transfer of its ownership to Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC).
More than five years ago on an April evening, cash-starved Jet Airways announced temporary grounding of operations after flying as a full service airline for 25 years. Since then, more than 20,000 jobs and money worth thousands of crores owed to lenders, vendors and passengers evaporated while awaiting an insolvency resolution. And today, the Supreme Court ordered the airline's liquidation, marking the formal completion of a turbulent journey into the sunset and shattering lean revival hopes.
Jet's air operator certificate will lapse on May 19.
Lenders of bankrupt airline Jet Airways, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), on Thursday told the Supreme Court that successful bidder Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC) was "unwilling" to pay the dues and that the "liquidation" was the only option left. The bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud was hearing the SBI-led consortium plea against the NCLAT's March order upholding ownership transfer of the bankrupt airline to JKC.
Jet Airways CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor has quit the grounded airline, according to a source. He had joined the airline as the chief executive officer in April last year. The source said that Friday was the last working day for Kapoor at the airline.
Grounded carrier Jet Airways on Friday announced the appointment of Sanjiv Kapoor as the chief executive officer. His appointment to the post comes days after the airline brought in former Sri Lankan Airlines CEO Vipula Gunatileka as the chief financial officer. Kapoor, who is currently the president of Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, has been associated with budget carriers SpiceJet and GoAir as well as with full-service carrier Vistara in various capacities in the past.
Jet Airways will operate flights with female cabin crew members in its start-up phase and hire male cabin crew members once it reaches a certain operational scale, the airline said on Sunday. It will be following the footsteps of Vistara, which had started hiring male cabin crew in March 2018, approximately three years after it was launched. Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 17, 2019, is currently in the process of re-launching operations under its new promoters Jalan-Kalrock Consortium. Aviation veteran Sanjiv Kapoor took charge as the chief executive officer of the airline on April 4.
Jalan-Kalrock Consortium, the winning bidder for bankrupt Jet Airways, on Monday said aviation regulator DGCA has renewed the airline's air operator certificate. Cash-strapped Jet Airways stopped flying from April 17, 2019. The Air Operator Certificate (AOC) was re-issued on May 20, 2022. However, since the airline did not start operations, AOC expired on May 19, 2023.
Jalan Kalrock Consortium, the winning bidder for the revival of grounded carrier Jet Airways, on Friday said it has infused an additional Rs 100 crore in the airline as per the court-approved resolution plan. With this, the consortium has "fulfilled" its total financial commitment of Rs 350 crore to revive the airline, which would pave the way for it to take over the ownership of Jey Airways, JKC (Jalan Kalrock Consortium) said in a statement. JKC also said it is expecting the airline to be up and running next year with the launch date likely to be announced in the next few days.
In signs of increasing differences, Jet Airways' winning bidder Jalan Kalrock Consortium on Tuesday asked the airline monitoring committee's authorised representative Ashish Chhawcharia not to issue any communication on behalf of the grounded carrier without approval of all the members of the committee. Amid the continuing uncertainty over the fate of Jet Airways, which shuttered operations in April 2019, the consortium on Tuesday wrote a letter to Chhawcharia. The latest development comes more than a week after Chhawchharia reportedly shot off a letter to Sanjiv Kapoor, asking him to refrain from using the title of CEO as he was only a CEO-designate.
Jet Airways conducted its test flight to and from the Hyderabad airport on Thursday in a step towards obtaining the air operator certificate. Jet Airways, which has not flown since April 17, 2019, is currently in the process of re-launching operations under its new promoters Jalan-Kalrock Consortium. On Thursday, the airline's CEO Sanjiv Kapoor said on Twitter that the test flight's operation was a very emotional moment "for all the wonderful folks who have been working hard to get Jet back in the skies".
Challenging the "illegal" reduction in its claim by the erstwhile resolution professional (RP) in the Jet Airways revival plan, the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) citing discrimination. The NCLAT on Thursday issued notices to RP Ashish Chhawchharia and the committee of creditors on PNB's plea to set aside the insolvency court's approval of the airline's revival plan. It has posted the matter for further hearing on September 21.
Jet Airways on Wednesday said that it has raised the fuel surcharge on tickets by Rs 400 across all domestic sectors. The newly decided fares have been made applicable from June 17.
It couldn't be immediately ascertained whether he has partnered with any entity or airline for the bid.
Jet Airways had appointed Ball as its CEO in May last year.
The consortium of UAE-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan and London's Kalrock Capital -- which has won the bid to revive Jet Airways -- on Monday said it expects to start operating the airline by the summer of 2021.
The appointment followed the resignation of Nikos Kardassis on June 7 after he served two terms as CEO between 1993-1999 and again from October 2009 till May 2013.
The government is examining alleged financial irregularities, sources of funding and other aspects of Jet Airways, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
Jet Airways on Tuesday launched its online booking facility with e-ticketing enabling passengers to book tickets to any of its destinations in India on the Internet.
These are the four primary issues that have soured the relationship between SBI-led lenders and JKC and delayed the resumption of commercial flights by Jet Airways, once India's largest private airline, which went bankrupt in 2019. Over the past three years, the airline went through an insolvency process under which JKC's resolution plan was approved by a committee of creditors (lenders) and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in October 2020 and June 2021, respectively. But this didn't mean an end to the problems.
Both Jet Airways and Go First have met with a similar fate of landing up in insolvency, albeit for different reasons. Whether Go First will be able to avoid the sharp erosion in value like in the case of Jet, experts say, will depend on how quickly it is able to restart operations and retain its slots at airports. Go First, owned by the Wadia group, filed for voluntary corporate insolvency resolution on May 2 due to inadequate capacity utilisation that led to a cash crunch.
The Enforcement Directorate late on Friday arrested Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal in a money laundering case linked to an alleged bank fraud of Rs 538 crore at the Canara Bank, official sources said.
Some of its subsidiary airline JetLite's pilots have quit.
The National Company Law Tribunal on Tuesday approved the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium's resolution plan for the bankrupt Jet Airways.
The office, spread over 52,775 square feet carpet area, in Mumbai's suburban financial centre Bandra Kurla Complex, is on the fourth floor of the building 'Jet Airways Godrej BKC'.
There are only three entities left in the fray now - Russian Fund Treasury RA Partners, Panama-based investment firm Avantulo Group and South American conglomerate Synergy Group Corp.
Synergy Group, the sole potential bidder for Jet Airways, had sought more time to take a decision on investing in the grounded airline.
Shares of Jet Airways on Wednesday surged nearly 20 per cent amid reports that some headway has been made in the deal between the Indian carrier and the Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad.
When Jet Airways shut operations, the slots which were allocated to it were temporarily distributed among various airlines. And, the airlines that were called upon to immediately create infrastructure so that the public at large does not face any hardship have invested huge amounts of money to created infrastructure to utilise such slots. "In view of this, though the allocation of slots to such airlines is temporary the same can't be withdrawn from them without any legitimate basis.", the affidavit said.
"The central government had rescued other businesses by re-structuring debts to the tune of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore. Compared to this, the amount (debt) of Jet Airways was much smaller. Moreover there was a resolution (accepted) by the lenders to save jobs and to save the airline," Sharma said.
Jet Airways requires at least 200 more pilots to carry out its operations in a seamless manner
'Boeing has returned some cash to the airline which will help it improve the current liquidity crisis.'
The company has finalised a three year business plan to increase revenue and control costs.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, the new owners of cash-strapped Jet Airways, how much have they paid towards dues on account of provident fund and gratuity to the former employees of the troubled airline. The top court made the query while commencing the hearing on a batch of petitions, including the one filed by the Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association, against the October 21, 2022 order of the insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT.
The airline has been laying off cabin crew starting from April 30 and 30-50 employees are being given pink slips almost on a daily basis, an industry source said.
The deal is being looked into by Competition Commission of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India among other regulators.
As a part of Children's Day celebrations, Jet Airways operated its annual 'Flight of Fantasy' for over 80 underprivileged children.
An overriding ambition to rule the domestic skies prevented Jet Airways from becoming a strong and formidable player in the international market. The Sahara buy added to the complexity of its operations and a dilution of what the airline stood for, says Anjuli Bhargava.
Aiming at 50 per cent revenue from its international operations in three years, Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways is planning to launch flights to New York in August followed by San Francisco and Toronto.
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