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.
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.
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.
Synergy Group, the sole potential bidder for Jet Airways, had sought more time to take a decision on investing in the grounded airline.
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'.
In the biggest aviation takeover in India, Jet Airways has struck a deal to buy Sahara Airlines for Rs 2,300 crore (Rs 23 billion), a move that would help Naresh Goyal promoted carrier to become the biggest domestic carrier.
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.
Agarwal submitted the express of interest through his family investment arm Volcan Investments before the close of the bid process on Saturday afternoon.
The assurance to pilots came after a meeting between the two sides at the airline's headquarters in Mumbai on Wednesday, airline sources told PTI on Tuesday evening.
Two associations representing pilots and engineers have written to SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar proposing that they would take over the airline and can bring in up to Rs 7,000 crore.
Sources said Sahara filed a case in the Bombay High Court a few days ago on non-payment of dues. According to sources, Jet was to pay Rs 900 crore to Sahara upfront, while Rs 137.5 crore was to be paid in yearly instalments over four years. Jet defaulted on the yearly instalment, they said. The source added that Jet's payout to Sahara in case of a single year's default could be Rs 550 crore.
'The government has assured us support.' 'The civil aviation ministry have told us that whatever we need, we will get prime airport slots and bilateral rights.'
Etihad earns about 23 per cent of its passenger revenue from code-share and equity partners, and this would increase after its tie-up with Jet.
Jet Airways on Thursday blamed a steep fall in the rupee, slowdown in the domestic aviation market and rise in fuel costs for a sharp widening in standalone net loss at Rs 891 crore in the July-September quarter.
"Tata Sons board is meeting tomorrow (Friday) to consider the proposal to bid for Jet Airways," people in the know of the development told PTI.
Jet Airways on Thursday said it would introduce more flights on both its domestic and international networks.
Jet Airways is keen to improve its market share
The Naresh Goyal-promoted private airline, in which UAE national carrier Etihad holds 24 per cent stake, is facing acute cash crunch after posting two back-to back quarterly losses this year.
The resolution plan has to be put to work this month itself. Jet has a debt of over Rs 8,000 crore and needs to make repayments of up to Rs 1,700 crore by the end of March.
A day after budget carrier SpiceJet announced fares starting at Rs 499 across its domestic network, Jet Airways too jumped on the bandwagon rolling out Rs 500 fares for the economy class on its domestic flights for a limited period.
A Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to London, with more than 300 people, triggered a major scare when it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control after getting intercepted by German fighter jets. The flight then had to be escorted by German Air Force fighter planes before it landed.
South America-based Synergy Group, one of the suitors, has said slots at London's Heathrow airport are critical to the airline's operations and will decide on participating in the resolution only if it gets clarity. It also wants to form a new company with its assets, employees, and operating permit but minus all liabilities.
Two new airlines -- Al Hind Air and FlyExpress -- are set to take to the skies, with the carriers receiving their no objection certificates from the civil aviation ministry.
Jet Airways group CEO Ravi Chaturvedi has resigned. Amid difficult times for the aviation industry, Jet Airways has cut three of its biggest loss-making international routes and plans to lease four wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft, besides phasing out three Boeing 737 planes.
The airline has been defaulting on salaries for some time, making partial payments in some cases or not paying at all, as it continues to lose money mainly in domestic routes where it can't raise fares facing competition from low-cost airlines.
Jet Airways has been looking at various ways to raise funds amid acute liquidity crunch that has forced it to ground aircraft, cancel flights in large numbers, shutdown stations and delay salary payments to its pilots and engineers along with other senior staff.
Ace Aviation, which has been fighting Jet Airways for the acquisition of three Boeing B777 aircraft, said that it has acquired another aircraft for the conversion slot in early February 2025.
The pilots and other senior staff have not been getting their full salaries since December.
In a dramatic turn of events in May 2019, an Emirates aircraft en-route to Dubai was asked to stop while it was taxiing for a take off in Mumbai. The pilot was given no reason and ordered to immediately return to the parking bay. As the aircraft returned to the terminal, two passengers from the first class - Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita - were offloaded by the immigration authorities, who said the duo cannot leave the country. Goyal, founder of Jet Airways, was stunned. The man, who ruled the aviation sector for two and a half decades with an iron hand, did not expect to be offloaded in this fashion.
The full service carrier has more than 20,000 employees, including pilots and engineers.
It will provide Jet Airways and the Arab airline members of AACO, with opportunities to create synergies.
While the SBI-led lenders' consortium is still working on ways to revive the once-storied Jet Airways, the civil aviation ministry has already awarded the carrier's slots at various airports to other airlines on a temporary basis.
If that happens, Jet Airways will be the first bankrupt airline which will be revived under the Insolvency process.
The probe agency has found that the company's vast network of sales agents across the globe was not independent of Jet Airways and several of these entities were linked to its founder, Naresh Goyal.
If all goes well, then every single employee of Jet Airways will become an owner of the airline.
Jet Airways' cabin crew and ground staff have challenged the Jalan Kalrock consortium's resolution plan, which was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in June, flagging concerns about pending salaries and retirement benefits. In their petition filed before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the Jet Airways Cabin Crew Association and Bhartiya Kamgar Sena have submitted that dues of all workmen of the airline were not included as part of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) cost. In June, NCLT approved Jalan Kalrock Consortium's resolution plan for Jet Airways, which remains grounded for more than two years now.
The All India Jet Airways Technicians Association cautioned that in case the allocation is not stopped, it would be forced to resort to legal means for a resolution.
India's duopoly in the domestic skies -- where IndiGo and Air India collectively control over 90 per cent of the market -- is highly skewed, leaving very little room for new players
The cash-strapped airline, which was grounded in April 2019, owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to banks, with those from the public sector having significant exposure.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances