Jet Airways' revival plan gets approval from bankruptcy court

Mumbai: In a much-anticipated breakthrough in the Jet Airways resolution, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the resolution of Kalrock-Jalan consortium for the bankrupt airline, two years after the once-storied airline went into insolvency proceedings.

The Mumbai-bench of the tribunal in its verdict on Tuesday gave 90 days to the aviation regulator DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to allot slots to Jet Airways.

In an oral order, it said if the slot allotment is not completed within the stipulated timeline, then the tribunal may be approached for an extension in the resolution period.

The tribunal said it was not giving a direction and the issue will be handled by the government or the appropriate authority on the historicity of slot allocations for Jet Airways.

Slots will be crucial for the revival of Jet Airways once it restarts operations. The slots that were with the airline prior to the suspension of operations in April 2019, have been allocated to other carriers.

Jet Airways, which flew for more than two decades had to suspend its operations on April 17, 2019 due to financial distress following which a consortium of lenders, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), filed an insolvency petition in June 2019, to recover outstanding dues worth over Rs 8,000 crore.

In October 2020, the airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved the resolution plan submitted by the consortium of the UK's Kalrock Capital and the UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.

Jet Airways has been undergoing a resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for two years, and its affairs are being managed by resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia.

Chhawchharia had approached NCLT stating that the slots are a vital part of the plan, and it is important that DGCA and MoCA submit their stance on the same after the CoC gave its approval to the resolution plan.

However, in a joint affidavit to the tribunal, DGCA and MoCA had submitted that Jet Airways does not qualify for grant of slots on the basis of historic precedence and the allocation will be based on ''Slot Allocation Guidelines''.