Jet Airways, which was grounded in April 2019 as it ran out of cash and failed to get emergency funding, will resume as a full-service airline in summer of 2021, according to a report by Business Standard, quoting sources.
The new owners of the carrier plan to operate the airline with a strong presence in the domestic market while connecting prominent European and West Asian cities with Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. The source told the publication that Jet will remain listed.
According to the report, Murari Lal Jalan, the businessman who led the winning consortium for Jet, plans to hold more than 51 per cent stake in the airline. Around 14 per cent will be held by London-based financial advisory firm Kalrock Capital while lenders will keep close to 10 per cent in the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline. The new owners are said to pump in more money after the regulatory clearance. The consortium has proposed to invest around Rs 1,000 crore.
“Both promoters have persona and business net worth. We are very optimistic about the business and if all regulatory approvals come on time, we plan to start operations in six months. We want to take Jet Airways back to its heydays,” the person quoted above told the publication.
The resolution plan proposed by Kalrock Capital and Jalan, which was approved by the lenders of Jet Airways in October, is currently awaiting approval from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). If the court allows, Florian Fritsch and Murari Lal Jalan would have the task of taking the airline off the ground again at a time when the aviation industry globally is in financial distress due to the pandemic.
Jalan has already started meeting policymakers, aircraft manufacturers, vendors and has assured there will be no dearth of funding to revive the airline, the source added.
Jet Airways saw its losses widening to Rs 5,535.75 crore in the year ended March 2019, mainly due to surge in expenses, as against a loss of Rs 766.13 crore in 2017-18. These figures are for standalone comprehensive losses.