Jet says international ops to remain grounded till Apr 18

Mumbai: Jet Airways on Monday said its services on overseas routes will remain grounded until April 18, even as the lenders failed to take a call on extending an emergency funding to the airline.

In an internal communication, chief executive Vinay Dube also said the airline’s board will meet Tuesday to discuss the next step for the carrier.

This is the third time that airline has extended the suspension of these flights, which was first announced for last Thursday.

“We have extended cancellation of international operations through Thursday, April 19,” Jet Airways chief executive Vinay Dube said in a communication. But it later clarified that the extension was to run through April 18.

Dube said the decision was taken following the non- receipt of funds from its lenders, who have now management control of the airline following a debt-restructuring plan last month.

“We have been working with the lenders to secure interim funding for our operations. The interim funding has not been forthcoming thus far,” he added.

He also said the current status of engagement with the lenders and other related matters will be placed before the board Tuesday morning to seek guidance on the next steps.

Its long-haul overseas operations is carried out by wide-body Boeing B777s and Airbus A330s while it deploys smaller B737s into the Middle East, Saarc and Southeast Asiamarkets.

The airline has only seven planes in the fleet with six of them regional jets ATRs and one B737 now. Rest of the planes in its fleet of 123, is on ground due to non-payment of rentals to the lessors and lack of cash to purchase jet fuel.