India’s Jet Airways to lease narrowbodies for 1Q22 restart
Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l) is expected to start domestic flight operations in the first quarter of 2022 and is working closely with airport operators on slot allocation, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium behind the attempt to relaunch the airline has told local media in a press release.
The new-look carrier intends to perform its first post-insolvency commercial flight from Delhi Int’l to Mumbai Int’l early next year, followed by short-haul international flights by the third or fourth quarter of 2022, the consortium said on September 13.
Sudhir Gaur has been named acting chief executive of the resurrected airline. He is a veteran pilot who has been with Jet Airways since its inception and who led criticisms of the company’s management last year before the consortium of London-based asset management firm Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan, an investor based in the United Arab Emirates, secured the approval of creditors in November and subsequently the backing of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in June 2021.
The statement said that the process of resuscitating the grounded carrier was on track, with its existing Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) in the process of revalidation. The consortium is working with the relevant authorities on slot allocations and the necessary airport infrastructure, it added. The Mumbai bench of the NCLT has given the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Civil Aviation 90 days to allot the required slots to Jet Airways, to be effective from June 2022.
“Our plan is to have 50+ aircraft in three years and 100+ in five years,” Jalan said in the statement, adding that an “all-narrowbody fleet” was “being selected based on competitive long-term leasing solutions. It is the first time in the history of aviation that an airline grounded for more than two years is being revived.”
According to Gaur, Jet Airways has already hired more than 150 full-time employees, and by the start of the 2022 financial year (April 1 next year), the recruitment of more than one thousand personnel will start in all categories.
The company’s headquarters will be in Gurgaon, a city just to the southwest of both New Delhi and Delhi Int’l. The first version of the carrier was based at Mumbai Int’l. However, “Jet Airways will continue to have strong and significant presence in Mumbai,” Gaur promised.