After being acquired by Jet Airways, Air Sahara was renamed as JetLite and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. In August 2008, the company announced its plans of consolidating Jet Airways and JetLite. Reaching great heights and being the talk of the town was a short-lived experience, and hence proving the quote, ‘nothing is permanent and not everything is temporary.’ Jet Airways soon started facing tribulations and one of the major reasons said to be responsible is the management style of the Chairman. Jet Airways had only one management team which was led by the founder himself. Other reasons being the stiff competition prevailing, eruptive crude oil prices, and the depreciation of the Rupee leading to financial problems. Jet Airways had been incurring huge losses since 2008 and had to reside to borrowing, the situation worsened in the year 2018.
Jet Airways after continuous struggles rose from the quagmire of problems. Indian government played a huge role and tried its best to save the airlines desperately despite the fact that it is a private airline. In fact, the government had also asked the state-run banks to step in with a bailout plan. The “Rescue Mission” to restore the airline was led by the largest public sector bank, State Bank of India. The major problem factor which stopped the potential investor is, none other than the Goyal problem. He was reluctant on giving up control over the Airline. No one wanted to invest, given the financial mess Jet Airways was in.
Jet Airways plans to fly within the next six months once the revival plan given by Karlock–Jalan consortium is approved by India’s bankruptcy tribunal. Jet Airways is planning to change its network once it comes to routes. It will reclaim the slots of its former hubs which are Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, and also plans to diversify into more regional routes. Jet Airways 2.0 is going to focus on a streamlined fleet of 25 planes whenever it re-launches. 18-20 will be narrow bodies while 5-7 will be widebodies of the 25.
Things are a little uncertain with the resolution process since there is no deemed approval for slots stated by MoCA and DGCA whereas Jet Airways is not concerned about the slots because during the time of COVID-19, the Government of India had increased a lot of slots along with the infrastructure development keeping a special focus on the civil aviation.
BY:
Arbaz & Tanya
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