NEW DELHI: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given approval to the Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan consortium’s bid for Jet Airways, eight months after the lenders had given a go ahead to its resolution plan.
According to the resolution plan of Kalrock Capital and UAE-based NRI Murari Lal Jalan, which was approved by the Committee of Creditors in October 2020 by 97% vote share, around Rs 1,100 would be paid in tranches in five years. The resolution professional of Jet Airways – Ashish Chhawchharia – had received claims of Rs 44,000 crore out of which he admitted claims of around Rs 15,400 crore.
Resolution Professional Ashish Chhawchharia said he is hopeful of the airline reviving and that if everything goes well, Jet Airways could return to the skies by the end of 2021.
Securing airport slots key challenge for Jet Airways
According to Resolution Professional Ashish Chhawchharia, Jet will initially operate on 20 routes, with 20 narrow body aircraft and five wide-bodied aircraft. He, however, added that it was difficult to say by when the issue of available slots will be resolved. Among the challenges the airline may face in the future, the biggest is to secure its historical slots at airports.
The bankruptcy court has granted 90 days to the consortium to apply for the same. However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and regulator DGCA had stated that the airline cannot reclaim lost slots since they are not an asset but merely permissions, which remain with the airline subject to the fulfilment of certain requirements. It added that allocation of slots will happen in accordance with the existing guidelines. Jet Airways had about 700 slots that allowed it to land/depart from busy airports like Mumbai and Delhi.
These slots were reallocated to other airlines after Jet suspended operations in April 2019 due to rising debt and shortage of funds. In a statement, the consortium also said that it “awaits the written order by the National Company Law Tribunal approving the Resolution Plan and shall inform all stakeholders on next steps for the revival of their beloved airline – Jet Airways”.
It added that the consortium wants to work alongside the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and all its competitors to “put Jet Airways back in the skies.” A fter many rounds of bidding, a consortium led by UK-based Kalrock Capital and UAE -based investor Murari Jalan was chosen by Jet Airways’ Committee of Creditors (CoC) as the winning bidder of the airline on 17 October 2020. Karlock and Jalan plan to split their share in Jet in a ratio of 49-51 and may end up controlling 89 per cent of the airline. The remaining will be provided to financial creditors. According to the resolution plan, the consortium had proposed a total cash flow of Rs 1,375 crore for the revival of the company.