Ending speculation over the next course of action, the crumbling Jet Airways finally announced that it will temporarily suspend operations from Wednesday night.
The development came after the State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders rejected the airline’s plea for emergency funds. Tonight 9W-2502 (Amritsar-Bombay-Delhi) will be last flight of beleaguered airline before a temporary closure.
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Jet Airways had asked lenders to release an interim fund of Rs 400 crore after its current operational fleet further shrunk to just five aircraft.
The airline, in a filing to stock exchanges, said that the SBI, on behalf of the consortium of Indian lenders, informed last night that “they are unable to consider its request for critical interim funding”.
“Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate today,” Jet Airways said in the filing.
“The decision has been taken after a painstaking evaluation of all alternatives that were made available to the company and after receiving guidance and advice on the same from its Board of Directors,” the crisis-hit airline said.
The airline has also informed the DGCA, and the ministries of civil aviation and finance, and other relevant government institutions of this course of action.
Jet Airways is the seventh airline to go down since May 2014. In the last five years, airlines like Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Air Carnival, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Zoom Air have all gone belly up.