Consortium chief hopes to restart Jet Airways in 6 months

UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium believes that the defunct Jet Airways can restart operations as early as six months.

"I am expecting to fly Jet Airways in the next six months, which is dependent on NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal - India's bankruptcy court) clearance," Jalan told NDTV in an interview.

Stressing that after receiving approval from the NCLT for its resolution plan, there will not be any hurdle, he added, "We are hoping to be done very, very soon. It is very important to have routes that Jet used to have. And, as a full-fledged airline, we have a lot of corporates. Our main aim was to be a corporate before and even now our main aim is to run the airlines for corporates."

The full-service carrier was grounded in early 2019 and subsequently is undergoing proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

On March 9, the Aviation Ministry refused to give any assurance on Jet Airways' slots issue, in an affidavit to NCLT. The next hearing is scheduled during the third week of March, by which time the resolution applicant will file his affidavit and detail its position.

Against the backdrop of the NCLT likely to take a final call on the resolution plan for the airline, Jalan had earlier in February this year told news agency PTI that initially Jet Airways will resume flying with around 25 aircraft.

Jalan Kalrock Consortium

In October 2020, the committee of creditors (CoC) of Jet Airways had approved the resolution plan submitted by the consortium of the UK's Kalrock Capital and Jalan, under the insolvency resolution process. The plan was approved after the conclusion of the e-voting on the proposal.

The carrier owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to banks, with public sector lenders having significant exposure.