Jet Airways have been facing deep fund crisis for some time now.
All Jet Airways flight, domestic and international, cancelled with immediate effect. The last flight will operate today.
With the lenders rejecting a lifeline of Rs 400 crore on Wednesday, Jet Airways was left with no other option but to ground operations at least temporarily. The airline has been on a wing and prayer since January.
Since the March 25 resolution to infuse Rs 1,500 crore into the airline is yet to fructify, the once leading airline has been defaulting on payments, forcing its lessors to retake almost all its planes and was operating just about six planes as of Tuesday.
The official announcement of grounding of operations made on Wednesday evening after the Jet Airways board had Tuesday authorised chief executive Vinay Dube to make one last appeal to the SBI-led consortium to get a life-line of Rs 400 crore Wednesday, before taking a final call on the future.
Also read | Jet Airways crisis: Vijay Mallya sympathises with Jet Airways, accuses govt of ‘discriminating’ between private, public airlines
Jet has become the seventh airline to go down since May 2014 and the 13th one after East West was shuttered.
During the past five years, airlines like Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Air Carnival, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Zoom Air have all gone belly up even as the government boasts of double-digit growth for more than four years in tow.
Also read | DGCA holds meeting with airlines; to continue monitoring airfare movement on daily basis
“The Jet Airways management’s request for Rs 400 crore emergency funds has been rejected,” banking sources told PTI.
“The airline has failed to garner the funds it was desperately looking for to continue operations,” he said. The airline, till date, was currently operating only five planes from 123 aircraft in the fleet till last December.
According to sources, the government is maintaining distance from the Jet affairs citing the matter is a commercial decision of banks.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)
Also read | Jet Airways crisis: Mumbai-Delhi oneway airfare touches Rs 32,000 per ticket
