Jet Airways puts up a brave face against 'disruption in its network operations'

Financially hard-pressed Jet Airways on Wednesday chose to put up a brave face, terming the "ongoing minor disruption in its network operations due to the cancellation of a few of its flights" as "of a temporary nature."

In response to wild speculations in the wake of the grounding of four aircraft and cancellation of over 10 flights on Wednesday, Jet Airways clarified in a statement that "the ongoing minor disruption in its network operations due to the cancellation of a few of its flights is of a temporary nature."

According to well-informed sources, Jet Airways, which has presently a fleet of around 120 aircraft, is burdened with around Rs 8,000 crore loan, and is said to be in the process of finalising a rescue plan with a consortium of banks by its partner Etihad.

The company's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), as was stated in a stock exchange filing on Monday, is scheduled for February 21, which is likely to discuss the issues plaguing the carrier.

"The cancellations were necessitated due to a scheduled termination of an aircraft lease and to carry out an engine normalisation exercise. The aircraft temporarily grounded for the engine normalisation exercise are therefore expected to rejoin the scheduled operations on Friday, that is, February 1, 2019," said a Jet Airways spokesperson in the statement.

"The company is actively engaged with all its aircraft lessors, and has been regularly providing updates on the efforts undertaken by the company to improve its liquidity. Aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company's efforts in this direction and no Jet Airways aircraft have been grounded today (Wednesday) due to an indefinite grounding demand by an aircraft lessor," the spokesman further said.

"Consequently, owing to flight cancellations arising out of these temporary groundings, the company is making all efforts to minimise disruption to its network and informing and re-accommodating its affected guests. The company is also providing periodic and requisite updates to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation," the spokesperson further said.

"More importantly, the airline's key stakeholders are actively engaged towards finalisation of the resolution plan. Jet Airways is confident of successfully resolving the current challenging situation," he added.