After 25 years of ‘Joy of Flying,’ the second-largest Indian airline gets grounded.
In a trail of airlines running out of money and several people losing their jobs, a new name was added after the Kingfisher airlines on April 17th, 2019. After months of financial struggle, Jet Airways released an official statement confirming bankruptcy and temporary shutdown.
The airline was refused critical interim funding by the State Bank of India on behalf of the consortium of Indian Lenders in April 2019, which caused the temporary shutdown. The statement says, “Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going.”
According to the Economic Times, Jet Airways is in debt of ₹8500 crores along with liabilities worth ₹25000 crores. Moreover, 22000 employees, including pilots, cabin crew, ground staff and technicians, lost their jobs. However, help has been extended to the ex-employees by the challenger airlines. E.g. SpiceJet appointed 500 Jet employees as part of its expansion plan.
There was a hope for creditors to reopen Jet Airways and recover the partial amount through potential investors like Etihad Airways and Volcan Investments. But both the parties declined in August 2019. Etihad Airways, which had already invested a 24% stake in 2013 but refused reinvestment this time.
To sum up, the chances of the airline flying again are uncertain at this point and time.
