Thursday, April 04, 2019

Jet Airways crisis: Taking away international flying rights may prove to be death-knell for the airline

A couple of days ago, Jet Airways informed the exchanges of another 15 Jet Airways aircraft being grounded on account of the lessors not receiving any payments from the airline. There was a lot of commotion about what would be the final operational count of aircraft for the airline at the moment.

The National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 states that “all airlines can commence international operations provided that they deploy 20 aircraft or 20 percent of total capacity (in term of average number of seats on all departures put together), whichever is higher for domestic operations.” However, the policy foresees nothing and does not talk about any situation where the State will withdraw the permission to fly abroad.

In the case of Jet Airways, there are about 28 aircraft flying now, as per the latest data that LiveFromALounge.com tracked, including nine 737 aircraft and 7 ATR aircraft. The rest of the aircraft operating are all wide-bodies, primarily used to fly abroad. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA’s statement that they need to examine the permission for Jet Airways to fly international at the moment. Jet Airways is now the smallest scheduled airline operating pan-India.
When the last Board meeting of Jet Airways was held on 25 March, 2019, the airline effectively made a barter, where in exchange for the Chairman stepping down, it was to receive an emergency funding of Rs 1,500 crore from the banks, who would effectively become a 50.5 percent plus owner of the airline when the restructuring goes through. The money never came. Jet Airways had to ground another 15 aircraft, and bought some time with the pilots who were threatening to go on a strike with effect from 1 April for non-payment of dues.

And while the law will take its course, there are some good reasons from a passenger perspective to look at why the international flights of Jet Airways are the last bastion, which should be taken into consideration before the government takes a decision.
04/04/19 Ajay Awtaney/First Post

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