The National Company Law Tribunal’s Mumbai bench on Tuesday approved Murari Jalan-Kalrock Capital's bid for beleaguered airline Jet Airways giving the airline a new lease of life.
According to sources close to the matter, NCLT rejected its claims for airport slots. It directed Jet Airways to apply for slots afresh and get them approved by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Slots were the bone of contention between the resolution applicants and aviation regulator DGCA. NCLT was approached on this issue where the Jalan-Kalrock consortium had said that they were under the impression slots would be retained.
However, DGCA had stated that it cannot take away slots from other airlines without a valid reason even though the allotment was temporary. The aviation regulator had stated that the new management of Jet Airways cannot claim the historicity of slots.
When Jet Airways stopped operations, the airline's slots were temporarily allotted to other airlines. Slots are time slots given to airlines to ply on various routes. Jet Airways stopped operations in April 2019 following a massive cash crunch and the company was taken to the NCLT by its lenders for resolution under the insolvency and bankruptcy code.
The Jalan-Kalrock consortium was selected as the successful bidder in October 2020 by the lenders of the airline, giving the airline a chance to resume operations.
Prior to shutting operations, Jet Airways was a full-service carrier that not only operated in the domestic sector but also on international routes. Jet Airways and Air India were the two Indian airlines that operated extensively on international routes like the US.
The airline had around 700 time slots on destinations like Delhi and Mumbai.
Jet Airways' shares went up 4.96% in Tuesday's trade to end the day at Rs 99.45 a share. Last year, the stock has touched a 52-week high of Rs 165 and a 52-week low of Rs 23.