Jet Airways is looking to lease around 20 Airbus A320 aircraft from lessors by 2024, aiming to resume operations and fly international routes in the next year and a half.
Sources told that the A320 aircraft will be a mix of the Ceo and more fuel-efficient Neo variant and will primarily be aircraft initially intended for Russian airlines. The aircraft could not be delivered as Airbus, Boeing, and western lessors have sanctioned Russia due to the Ukraine invasion.
Jet Airways shut operations in April 2019 after reaching a pile of debt and bankers refusing fresh funding. The availability of the A320 family aircraft in multiple variants, including the 321 and 321 XLR, is one reason the airline is opting for Airbus’ famous single-aisle variant over the Boeing 737 Max.
Sanjiv Kapoor, CEO of Jet Airways
“Due to certain international conditions, there are some aircraft which have evolved available with lessors which would have been available otherwise,” stated Sanjiv Kapoor, CEO of Jet Airways, without commenting on the aircraft type
“We are yet to decide on our fleet plan but intend to ramp up operations fast and want to fly international routes by 2024 which means we will have at least 21 aircraft by then,” Kapoor said.
Bloomberg said that the airline is close to signing an order with Airbus for aircraft, but Kapoor told us delivery slots for the new order book will not be available before 2024. “Whatever scaling up we have to do in the first two years will be from leased aircraft,” he stated, adding that the airline was yet to complete the order.
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Kapoor was the chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara and oversaw strategy, marketing, and network planning and expects the airline to have its first flight in September. If that happens, Jet Airways will be the first bankrupt airline revived under the Insolvency process
Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association
However, several requests were filed before the NCLAT questioning the order by workers and workmen of Jet Airways, Punjab National Bank, TLD MEAI FZE, and Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association. The tribunal is slated to hear the case on 5 July.
A few lessons that Business Standard spoke to stated that they were not sure about beginning a business with Jet Airways due to confusion over the relevance of NCLT’s ruling that the airline’s previous dues getting waived off under India’s bankruptcy laws in territories outside India, But, Kapoor told that while questions have been increased, lessors and aircraft manufacturers are comfortable doing business with the airline.
“In every talk, we have explained to lessors and vendors that it is new management. This is not the management responsible for the past and we should be viewed as a new entity. Generally, it has been pretty clear with them that it is a new entity,” he expressed.
Airline executives are also offering interest in operating for Jet Airways as there is more certainty now over the resumption of operations, with many from rival airlines joining the team.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium, reviving the grounded airline, has declared senior executives in charge of engineering, inflight product and services, sales, and digital.
The recruits include Prabh Sharan Singh (chief digital officer), HR Jagganath (vice president – engineering), Mark Turner (vice president – inflight products and services), and Vishesh Khanna (vice president-sales, distribution, and customer engagement). Tanay Paalshetkar and Srihari Venugopal from Go First have joined as heads of revenue management and network planning, respectively.
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Source: Business standard