NEW DELHI: The liquidity crisis at Jet Airways has deepened to such an extent that on Monday, Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) halted fuel supplies to the airline over unpaid dues for a brief while. However, IOCL resumed the fuel supply later in the day, saving the carrier from a major operational fiasco.
Sources told this newspaper that IOCL stopped supply of Aviation Turbine Fuel to Jet around noon and restored it at by 5 pm.
"After an assurance of payment was made by Jet, IOCL resumed fuel supply to Jet," said a person privy to the development.
With debts accumulating over Rs 10,000 crore and no major funding received so far, the carrier, which till last year was the country’s second largest in terms of market share, is now struggling to make payments on every front.
After grounding of 15 planes on Tuesday raised concerns on its ability to operate on international routes, lessors are now approaching aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to take the grounded planes out of the country and lease them out to other airlines.
According to news agency Reuters, about six lessors are expected to apply to DGCA to de-register up to 15 Jet planes that have already been grounded, over the next 10 days.
This is in addition to the five planes that MC Aviation Partners, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp, applied on Friday to de-register, sources told the news agency.
Jet, which once had a fleet of around 120 planes, is now left with only 26 planes. The airline delayed payment to all its 16,000 employees in March, the third delay since September 2018. It is facing an ultimatum from pilots to clear dues by April 15, else they would stop flying.
Lenders of Jet, who are now the major stakeholders, on Thursday declared that they will invite bids for a stake sale on April 6 and explore other options in case the sale does not yield acceptable results.