Senior management exit Jet as revival hopes fade

An exodus of senior management personnel has hit the now grounded Jet Airways on Tuesday, further damaging hopes of the airline's revival.

The airline's CEO, CFO and Company Secretary have resigned, even as lenders are currently in the process of selling the airline to recover their dues and resurrect the company.

On Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vinay Dube, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Deputy Chief Executive Amit Agarwal and Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Kuldeep Sharma resigned.

According to a Jet Airways filing in the BSE: "We wish to inform you that Vinay Dube, Chief Executive Officer of the company, vide his letter dated May 14, 2019, has resigned from the services of the company with immediate effect due to personal reasons."

Dube's resignation comes as a double blow on Tuesday for the grounded airline as earlier in the day, CFO Agarwal also resigned.

The exodus comes days after the airline's top executive Gaurang Shetty, considered close to founder Naresh Goyal, resigned from the board of directors.

Having run out of cash, Jet Airways suspended its operations on April 17. Besides employees exiting, its aircraft are also being gradually de-registered. These events have added to the growing uncertainty about airline's revival.

Lenders of Jet Airways led by state-run State Bank of India (SBI) are currently in the process of selling the airline to recover their dues of over Rs 8,400 crore. Private equity firm TPG Capital, Indigo Partners, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Etihad Airways had been shortlisted to place their bids after they submitted Expressions of Interest (EoIs).

On May 10 -- the last date for submitting the binding bids -- only Etihad gave its offer and that too in the eleventh hour. The other two bids for the airline were unsolicited.

Faced with salary delays and uncertainty over revival of the airline, thousand of Jet Airways employees, especially pilots and engineers, have left the company to join rival carriers.

--IANS

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