Mumbai: In an indication of a possible hard-landing, crippled Jet Airways on Thursday indefinitely suspended operations to the Eastern and Northeastern states after its active fleet came down to just 14, a travel industry source said.
Later in the day, the carrier also announced that all international flights scheduled for tonight had been cancelled due to operational reasons, news agency ANI reported.
“All Jet Airways operations in the Eastern region are suspended. And effective today, there are no Jet flights to and from Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and other airports in the region,” said the travel industry source.
When contacted, Jet Airways said its Mumbai-Kolkata, Kolkata-Guwahati and Dehradun-Guwahati via Kolkata were cancelled for Friday due to “operational reasons.”
As of Thursday the airline operated just 14 planes — way down from 123 planes in operations at the peak.
“Jet Airways’ flight 9W 615 Mumbai to Kolkata and 9W 675 from Kolkata to Guwahati on April 12 are cancelled due to operational reasons.
“Similarly, 9W 676 from Dehradun to Kolkata via Guwahati has also been cancelled until further notice,” Jet said in a statement.
Refunds are being processed, the airline added.
Earlier, in the day the aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola told PTI that the ministry may review Jet’s eligibility to continue its international operations after it gets a report from the regulator DGCA on the issue.
The government rules stipulate an airline must have at least 20 planes for operating international operations.
Of the 14 aircraft that it is operating as of Thursday, eight are wide-body B777s (seven) and an A330 — generally used for long-haul international operations.
The remaining six planes are three B737s, which are largely used for flying on domestic routes besides on short- haul international routes and the rest three are regional ATRs.
Source: News18