Flying on empty

Reviving Jet Airways is a Herculean task

Jet Airways appears to have become a beneficiary of the election season. Common sense would have dictated that lenders should have taken the indebted airline through the insolvency and bankruptcy process and negotiated a deal with prospective bidders to recoup some of their loans. Instead, concern for the optics of having over 16,000 people looking for jobs just at the start of the seven-phase election, in which high unemployment is a major issue, has prompted the lenders’ consortium, comprising mainly government-owned banks, to opt for a sub-optimal resolution plan, which has seen many changes already. As a result, the airline