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PMO Calls Urgent Meeting on Crisis-Hit Jet Airways, All International Flights till Monday Cancelled

Mumbai: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has called an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis in private airline Jet Airways, which is facing acute financial woes.

According to sources, the meeting has been called after Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu asked the secretary of the department to review issues concerning Jet Airways.

Crisis-hit Jet Airways is facing acute financial crunch and has grounded several of its flights and stopped international operations. The drastic measure was announced after the airline informed the exchanges that it was forced to ground 10 more planes due to non-payment of rentals to the lessors.

Jet Airways has extended suspension of its international operations till next Monday due to severe liquidity issues. Incidentally, the stake sale bid invited by the SBI-led consortium of bankers, which manages the day-to-day operations of the airline, also closes by the end of the day Friday, after being extended by two days.
Airline founder Naresh Goyal, the UAE carrier Etihad Airways, Air Canada and the country’s national investment fund among others are reported to have submitted bids, according to media reports.

On Thursday, the airline had announced temporary grounding of its international operations for the day.

Jet was the largest international airline from the country till the financial crisis – when it had to also suspend operations to the entire Eastern and Northeastern markets as it was forced to ground 10 more aircraft following default of lease rentals.

This has left Jet with no large aircraft while it has just 16 planes for domestic operations, aviation regulator DGCA said. “Jet has decided to extend suspension of its international operations till Monday, due to severe cash crunch,” airline sources said.

Jet was the largest domestic carrier operating in the international sector with a hub in Amsterdam, where a cargo agent had taken possession of an aircraft this on Tuesday demanding bill payment. This led to the cancellation of the Amsterdam-Mumbai flight that day.

Jet flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru scheduled were cancelled for operational reasons,” Jet said, adding it had also cancelled the Bengaluru-Amsterdam-Bengaluru flight on Friday.

On the domestic front, all Jet operations to and from the Eastern and Northeastern states were suspended till further notice. Following this, there would no Jet flights to and from Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and other airports in the region, travel industry source had told PTI.

Jet had also said its Mumbai-Kolkata, Kolkata-Guwahati and Dehradun-Guwahati-Kolkata flights stood cancelled till further notice due to “operational reasons.” As of Thursday, the airline had just 14 planes—way down from 123 planes in operations till a few months back.

Of the 14 aircraft that it operated till Thursday evening, eight were wide-body B777s (seven) and an A330 – generally used for long-haul international operations. The remaining six planes were, three B737s, which are largely used for flying on domestic routes besides on short-haul international destinations and the rest three are regional ATRs.

With just 14 aircraft left for operations, aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola had told PTI that the ministry was awaiting a report from the DGCA to decide whether Jet can continue to fly on international routes. The government rules stipulate an airline must have at least 20 planes for operating international operations.

Source: News18