Friday, May 24, 2019

Turbulent times in Jet Airways

After the elections. These three words kept cropping up like a refrain in all conversations with employees of Jet Airways, which announced a temporary closure last month. Elections over and results announced, the beleaguered airline’s estimated 12,000 employees now hope that the new government will chalk out a map for the survival of the carrier — and their own.

Not so long ago these employees were a happy bunch, until trouble started brewing last year. “There were a lot of perks working in the aviation industry, with the destinations you end up going to, and the cheaper flight tickets offered to you,” says Deshpreet Singh Vaid, a Jet Airways pilot.

“It was home for all of us,” adds cabin crew Sagarika Roy Chowdhury, whose entire career so far has been with Jet Airways. “And now we are all left without an anchor.”

The airline flew its last flight on April 17, before shutting all domestic and international operations. The company, in a statement to the stock exchange last month, said it was unable to pay for fuel anymore after the consortium of Indian lenders (a group of seven banks Jet borrowed from), led by State Bank of India (SBI), turned down the airline’s request for critical interim funding.

Since February 21, when the airline opted for a banks-led resolution plan, it has been buffeted by several twists and turns, including the grounding of aircraft, the resignation of its founder Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita from the board, a call for bidders and, finally, a temporary shutdown.

As the lenders struggle to find investors to bail out the cash-strapped airline and the existing shareholder Etihad Airways declining to invest anything more than its existing 24 per cent shareholding, employees are attempting to step in. Recently, two employees’ associations — the 800-member Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP) and 500-member JAMEVA (Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers’ Welfare Association) — requested the consortium of lenders to allow them to bid for the airline. This is not the first time an employees’ association has come forward to bid for a stake in an airline: Indian Pilots’ Guild, an association of Air India pilots, had also bid in 2000 for 40 per cent stake in the airline.
24/05/19 Payel Majumdar Upreti/Business Line
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