The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai, on Tuesday approved the resolution plan of Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan for the revival of Jet Airways two years after the airline shut down operations due to a cash crunch.
The NCLT, in an oral order, gave 90 days to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation for allotting airport slots to the airline.
‘Date can be extended’
The bench also said that if further extension of the effective date was required, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium could approach the tribunal again.
In an affidavit, the government had submitted that Jet Airways did not have a claim over airport slots held by it earlier. These slots were allocated to different airlines after Jet Airways suspended flight operations in April 2019.
“The Consortium maintains its stand that it wants to work alongside the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and all its competitors to put Jet Airways back in the skies,” the Jalan-Kalrock consortium said in a press statement.
‘Delhi, Mumbai slots full’
“I am confident that the DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation will give fair consideration to the business proposal for Jet’s revival,” Ashish Chhawchharia, Jet Airways’ Resolution Professional (RP) and partner, Grant Thornton, said. “Apart from airports such as Delhi and Mumbai, on preliminary analysis, it appears that other airports have sufficient slots, whereas some are likely to expand their capacity.”
The bid by the consortium of Kalrock Capital and Mr. Jalan was approved by the Committee of Creditors in October last year.
‘Claims total ₹15,432 cr.’
As per the resolution plan, the Kalrock-Jalan consortium has proposed to repay financial creditors and employees about ₹1,200 crore over five years and intends to reestablish Jet Airways as a full-service airline with 30 aircraft. This contrasts with claims totalling ₹15,432 crore from financial and operational creditors which were admitted by the RP.
“Surprisingly, the NCLT order is a massive clean-up,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO and director, CAPA Advisory.
“It will allow the new promoters to develop a viable business case subject to significant capitalisation,” Mr. Kaul added.
