Jet Airways has been granted permission to resume its flight operations after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation granted it Air Operator Certificate on Friday, reported PTI. The certificate allows an airline to use its flight for commercial purposes.
Once India’s biggest private carrier, Jet Airways had grounded its flights in 2019 due to financial distress. The airline now plans to resume flight operations in the July-September quarter, according to the news agency.
It needed to complete five proving flights to get the certificate. The airline operated these flights between May 15 and May 17 with aviation regulator officials onboard.
In a statement, the airline said the grant of the Air Operator Certificate revalidates the confidence of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in the operational preparedness of Jet Airways, reported India Today.
The company said that aircraft and fleet plan along with other details will be announced in a phased manner in the coming weeks. It said that the appointment of additional senior management officials will be announced next week and hiring of employees for operational roles will soon begin with former Jet Airways staff getting preference wherever possible.
“We are committed to making this an extraordinary success story in Indian aviation and in Indian business,” said Murari Lal Jalan, the lead member of Jalan-Kalrock Consortium, the promoter of Jet Airways.
Jet Airways was founded by Naresh Goyal and Anita Goyal, who had resigned from the board of directors in March 2019 as the airline struggled to fund its operations.
The airline operated its last flight on April 17, 2019. The debt-ridden airline had then told the stock exchanges that it took the decision to suspend operations after its lenders, led by State Bank of India, did not consider its request for funding.
Two months later, the lenders filed an insolvency petition to recover outstanding dues worth over Rs 8,000 crore.
In October 2020, the airline’s Committee of Creditors approved a resolution plan submitted by Jalan and a consortium of the United Kingdom’s Kalrock Capital. A resolution plan is a proposal that provides a roadmap of how the problem of a company’s insolvency and its inability to pay off debts will be resolved.
In June 2021, the resolution plan was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal.
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