Once Ruler Of Indian Skies, Jet Airways To Suspend Operations From 10.30 PM Today; All Future Flights Cancelled

The Jet Airways management has decided to temporarily suspend all flight operations from 10.30 PM today, Economic Times has reported.

The last flight of the airline would operate at 10.30 PM and all other domestic and international flights in the future have been cancelled. Battling severe cash crunch and mounting debts, Jet Airways was only running around 30-40 flights last week.

Jet’s fate was sealed when the appeal of CEO Vinay Dube for a Rs 400 crore loan fell on deaf ears. The current crisis began in March 2018 when the airline delayed salary payments to staff and announced a 25 per cent pay cut for top-management.

Launched in 1993 as a air-taxi operator, Jet Airways became the largest Indian Airline in the third quarter of 2010. The airline commanded the Indian skies and generated global interest with its premium service. It notably signed a deal with Ethiad Airways to sell 24 per cent stake to the UAE airline.

As per various aviation experts, Jet Airways’ financial troubles can be traced back to its $500 million acquisition of Air Sahara in 2006 which was dubbed as an inflated deal. Air Sahara was re-branded as Jet Lite but its financial troubles meant that Jet wrote off its entire investment in the airline in 2015.

Jet also suffered hugely due to the rise of low-cost carriers like IndiGo, Go Air and Spice Jet which almost exclusively began serving India’s growing middle class and budget conscious travellers.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for the carrier and it would be able to taxi on to the runway anytime soon.