Jet Airways looks into abyss as JKC fails to renew its flying permit

Air operator's permit (AOP) is a prerequisite for any airline to commence commercial operations

The Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC), which won the bid for Jet Airways is facing an important deadline on May 19. Jet Airways is scheduled to lose its air operator's permit (AOP) which is issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), a Financial Express (FE) report said. Importantly, AOP is a prerequisite for any airline to commence commercial operations.

However, no request for renewal of its AOP has been submitted by Jet Airways so far. Usually, such requests are made at least one month before the AOP expires. This translates into a situation where JKC will not be able to operate Jet even after 30 months of acquiring it, the report said.

Quoting an industry expert aware of the matter, the newspaper reported that it takes around 1-2 months to start flight operations. Also, to start operations, an airline needs to have slots allocated to it.

Only after taking care of arranging ground handling and aircraft parking can an airline commence bookings. It takes around two months to get slots, the expert said.

To issue an AOP, DGCA looks into factors like the financial strength of the airline, its management team, aircraft inventory, maintenance repair and overhaul arrangments (MRO), and the number of pilots serving the airline.

According to its earlier plans, Jet had decided to start operations as a full-service carrier. It was scheduled to begin its services in September-October 2022.

Jet Airways was founded by Naresh Goyal and it used to be the largest carrier in the country before it halted operations in April 2019 given its troubled financial health.