Awaiting to get back to the skies, Jet Airways is considering selling 11 aircraft as frustration grows among lenders who are effectively forcing the airline into liquidation while the resolution process remains slow, The Economic Times reported on Monday.
Bankers cited by the business daily said they were compelled to look at their options as the Jalan-Kalrock consortium (JKC), which emerged as the winning bidder of the defunct airline, has failed to pay the required amount even one-and-a-half years after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the resolution plan.
Nobody thought the
Jet Airways resolution would take so long to execute and the banks cannot transfer the company till the money is received, which does not seem to be happening any time soon, the sources said. They added that the 11 planes in their possession were also losing value and so, maybe it was time to relook at selling those.
Last week, the JKC filed an application in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) suggesting it won’t make any additional payment over the Rs 475 crore approved in its resolution plan. This application relates to an order dated October 21, in which NCLAT directed the
consortium to make payment of unpaid PF and gratuity to workmen and employees of the airline until June 2019 when the insolvency process was initiated.
The tribunal is likely to take up the plea on November 29, which the banks will watch and act accordingly, the ET report said.
The court had asked erstwhile resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia to compute these payments within a month and communicate the same to the consortium.
While the deadlock over payments continues to delay Jet Airway’s revival in its new avatar, the consortium has been forced to take some drastic cost-cutting measures, including
pay cuts and Leave Without Pay for many of the 230 employees.
(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)
