With the clouds of uncertainty darkening over the survival of his 25-year-old airline, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal on Monday sought to reassure the 16,000-strong staff of the efforts to restore the “much needed stability” in its operations at the earliest.
Since a larger number of its over 100-fleet are grounded leading to drastically curtailed operations, the airline is struggling to prevent a nose-dive somehow.
Goyal, in a communication to employees Monday evening also said talks with the airline’s strategic partner Etihad Airways and SBI-led lenders are going on. The UAE carrier owns 24 percent in the airline.
“Once again I assure you that I am personally committed to have the resolution process completed as soon as possible and restore the much-needed stability to our operations at the earliest,” Goyal said in a letter to the staff who are apprehensive of their future with the airline.
The airline is sitting on a debt pile of over Rs 8,200 crore and has defaulted thrice since January, including on some forex debt.
On 14 February, its board had approved a bank-led- resolution plan, whereby the SBI-consortium of lenders will become the largest shareholders in the airline and Goyal would exit the management as the chairman and board member.