Jet Airways revival in limbo; operator's license expires on May 19

Jet Airways revival continues to remain in limbo even after 4 years. In yet another setback, the airline's air operator's permit (AOP) is set to expire on May 19th.

The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation granted Jet Airways the permit on May 20, 2022 so that it could start full-scale operations by October 2022. However, now, a revival even in 2023 looks unlikely, say experts.

In the past year, Jet Airways saw a spate of high level exits including Sanjiv Kapoor, chief executive officer-designate and Mark Turner, vice president of in-flight services among others.

With no management team in place, its future owners, the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), have not yet paid their creditors or finalised the transfer of control.

In October 2020, JKC was announced as the winning bidder for the bankrupt airline.

After Air India, Jet Airways was the only other full-service airline operating in India since it started as an air taxi company in 1993. Naresh Goyal launched it, and it started operating in its entirety in 1995. International flights were introduced in 2004.

JKC informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) last week that more time is needed for it to implement the revival plan and pay creditors, as reported by Money Control.