Jet Airways creditors have approved a resolution plan that will give the nation’s oldest private airline a new life, the airline said in a regulatory filing on Saturday.
The plan unveiled by a London-based consortium of Kalrock Capital and UAE businessman Murari Lal Jalan comes after months of talks about the future of the airline and was confirmed in the regulatory filing, which did not give details of the agreement.
A person familiar with the developments said the new owners agreed to inject ₹ 1,000 crore as working capital for the revival of the airline. A further Rs 1 billion will be awarded to creditors over a five-year period.
The airline’s financial creditors will also get a 10% stake in the company, the person said, although the plan remains subject to approvals by the bankruptcy court and the country’s airline regulator.
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Jet Airways, which operated a fleet of more than 120 aircraft serving dozens of domestic destinations and international hubs including Singapore, London and Dubai, was forced in April 2019 to suspend all flights, paralyzed by mounting losses as it attempted competing with flights cost rivals.
After Jet stopped its operations, at least 280 slots in Mumbai and 160 in Delhi were left vacant, which were then handed over to rivals. The revival plan is also based on reclaiming some of these slots.
“The plan is to build slowly and build capacity gradually as they will start over,” the person quoted above said. Flights are not likely to resume for at least three to six months. Since its operations were halted, the airline and its lenders had been looking for suitors. Jet’s financial and operational creditors were owed nearly Rs 30 billion after operations were halted.
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