Mumbai: Jet Airways’ survival remained under serious threat after its lenders Monday deferred a much-anticipated decision to provide emergency funds to the carrier following a marathon meeting, even as its pilots’ union appealed to the lenders and the prime minister to save the airline.
Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube in an internal communication has said the lenders could not decide on the emergency funding and that the board of the airline will meet today to take a call on the future. “As you are aware, we have been working with the lenders to secure interim funding for our operations. The interim funding has not been forthcoming thus far, and as a result we have extended cancellation of international operations until April 18.
“The current status of our engagement with the lenders and other related matters shall be placed before the board, where the management will seek guidance from the board on the next steps forward,” Dube said in a mail. Jet Airways pilots’ union, the National Aviators Guild had Sunday deferred a decision to strike from Monday saying that it wanted to give more time to the airline ahead of the lenders’ meeting.
On March 25, the airline’s board had approved ‘the debt resolution plan’, under which SBI-led consortium would provide an emergency loan of Rs 1,500 crore and in turn acquire majority stake, following which founder chairman Naresh Goyal and wife Anita would leave the airline and pare his stake to around 25 per cent.
But banks have so far only under Rs 300 crore has been disbursed that too in small amounts, citing procedural delays. This left the airline cancelling hundreds of flights as the airline failed to pay the lease rentals. Currently it has just six-seven planes for operations, way below its peak of 123 planes in December.
A meeting between the airline management and its major lender SBI last week also could not take a decision on the fund infusion. The airline’s pilots along with engineers and senior staff were last paid for December 2018.