India’s Jet Airways is gearing up to take to Indian skies by October 2022, Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was quoted as saying by Indian media. The airline is currently in the process of getting its air operator’s permit (AOP), which was suspended in 2019 after it grounded flights, according to a report in The Economic Times.
“We are targeting to start commercial operations by October. It could be earlier. The reason I am not committing to earlier is we do not want to rush things and start prematurely,” said Kapoor. “There are certain expectations from the Jet brand, and we plan to live up to those and, in fact, do better,” he said.
The airline is also in talks to both Boeing and Airbus to order new aircraft. “We are looking at both the manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing. We are also going to take a look at the Embraer E2; we want to be fully aware of all the products in the market. We are evaluating the aircraft and will then take a call on the fleet and orders,” the new CEO said.
Initial operations may begin with aircraft from lessors since new airplanes take time to come, he said. The airline may “not be using the 777s or other aircraft from the old Jet fleet for Jet 2.0”.
The airline’s new owner, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, has committed to a funding of $180 million (about Rs 1,350 crore) as part of the airline’s bankruptcy resolution process. Of this, about $60 million will go towards clearing the dues of Jet Airways.
“This (remaining) $120 million is substantial funding for any airline startup, and this amount does not include potential SLB proceeds, which are also often used for funding aircraft acquisition and fleet growth,” said Kapoor.
Proceeds from the sale and lease back (SLB) of aircraft would be on top of the $120 million that would come from the promoters. Also outside of this would be any proceeds from the disposal of “Jet 1.0 assets that are no longer required by Jet 2.0”, Kapoor said.
The funds will be made available once Jet Airways received the AOP — likely by the end of this month — and the airline’s ownership is formally transferred by the bankruptcy court to the new promoters, he said.
The airline is set to offer a dual-class configuration in a hybrid model, where it will have a small full-service business class and an economy class that is competitive with low-cost carriers, the CEO said.
“We will have a frequent-flier program. We do not know yet whether we will have the Jet former program or not, because that was not owned by us alone, but jointly by Jet and Etihad,” he said, adding: “One thing I can assure is that all those who were platinum and gold members on Jet FFP will get their status restored from day one.”
