Jet Air Conflict With Pilots May Hamper Fund-Raising

Jet Airways (India) Ltd.’s three- day conflict with its pilots is costing the nation’s second- largest airline passengers and may hamper plans to raise $400 million to buy new planes.
“The last thing investors want to see when the airline’s trying to raise funds is a crisis like this,” Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer of the Indian unit of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an industry adviser said yesterday. “This is a wildfire and they need to put out as soon as possible.”
Losing customers adds to pressure on Chairman Naresh Goyal, 60, after the carrier posted the biggest loss in a decade last year. The labor dispute and loss of market share to budget airlines could disrupt the company’s biggest fund-raising plan since selling shares.
Jet Airways domestic bookings have slumped 39 percent to 14,000 a day since the strike began, Sudheer Raghavan, chief commercial officer, said in Mumbai yesterday. International reservations are down 9.5 percent to 9,500 a day.
The airline has canceled 484 flights this week, including 90 flights today “due to continued pilot agitation,” it said in an e-mailed statement. More than 400 captains and first officers called in sick yesterday as the newly formed National Aviator’s Guild union demand the airline reinstate four colleagues who were fired. State-owned Air India has flown some of the 13,000 passengers affected by the strike. On Sept. 8, the airline asked a court to force the pilots to return to work.
10/09/09 Vipin V. Nair and Subramaniam Sharma/Bloomberg

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Categories: Jet Airways Sep 2009