Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Wednesday, 3 April said that the cash-strapped Jet Airways is operating 28 planes, including 15 aircraft in domestic routes, PTI reported.
Earlier in the day, Kharola had said that less than 15 planes of the airline were flying. On the sidelines of an aviation conference, Kharola in the morning, said, "yesterday, it was 28". When told that the airline has announced grounding 15 more aircraft, he said that then the current fleet would be "less than about 15".
In the evening, Kharola clarified to PTI that Jet Airways is operating around 28 planes and out of them, about 15 are operating in the domestic routes.
On Tuesday, the debt-ridden airline grounded as many as 15 more planes due to lease rental defaults. Cash-hit Jet Airways continues to navigate in troubled skies despite the SBI-led consortium of lenders taking over its management control last month.
A day later, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu ruled out any interference in efforts to help cash-strapped Jet Airways, saying that the government should not be seen to be doing any kind of deals to help an airline, PTI reported.
“We should not be seeing to be doing anything which would be construed or seen or actually resulting in either favouritism or doing something wrong against somebody. We did not do that.”Suresh Prabhu, Civil Aviation Minister
However, Prabhu said the ministry would be looking at the safety aspects.
In another development, pilots’ body, the National Aviators’ Guild, has written to the aviation regulator DGCA and airline Chief Executive Vinay Dube, pressing for payment of three months of salary dues along with applicable interest.
The 25-year-old airline also said it is making all efforts to minimise flight disruptions due to the grounding of these planes. Till last month, the airline had taken 54 planes out of operations due to lease rental defaults.
Last week, the airline had informed the government it had only 35 aircraft in operations.
On 25 March, Jet Airways board had approved a resolution plan formulated by SBI-led domestic lenders, under which had agreed to infuse an emergency funding of Rs 1,500 crore into the airline, and convert the same into equity worth 50.1 percent for a notional value of just Re 1 each share.
However, the funds are yet to be disbursed due to “technical” reasons.
Earlier in the day, the guild demanded interest on delayed salaries along with timely payment, saying prevailing situation is not “ideal” for them to be in the cockpits.
In two separate communications to Director-General of Civil Aviation BS Bhullar and Jet Airways Chief Executive Vinay Dube, the guild also said they are facing problems in paying their EMIs and other financial commitments.
The pilots along with engineers and have salary arrears for three months, starting January, which stand at Rs 320-350 crore.
The guild, which claims to represent around 1,100 of the 1,600 Jet pilots, had last month warned of halting operations from 1 April, unless their salary dues were cleared and clarity was provided on future payments by 31 March.
On 6 December, the management had revised its earlier payment schedule, according to which it was to clear all dues by 31 March and on 21 March, the guild had sought government intervention in the recovery of their dues.
Amid mounting dues, the airline on Tuesday reportedly offered leave without pay to its Boeing 737 pilots to restrict the spiralling outstanding salary dues. In addition, they have been given three-days off after five days of work from 11 to 26 April as against two- days off for six-days work earlier.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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