Cash-strapped Jet Airways suspended all its international flights scheduled to fly on Thursday night, and grounded all its services to and from the East and Northeast regions.
The move came after 10 more of Jet aircraft were grounded over non-payment of outstanding dues to lessors. The airline had recently grounded more than three-fourth of its 119-aircraft fleet.
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“Jet Airways flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru scheduled for April 12 are cancelled for operational reasons,” PTI quoted as saying an airline source close to the development.
The airline will also not operate on the Bengaluru-Amsterdam-Bengaluru route on April 13.
Earlier on Thursday, the airline announced grounding of 10 more planes due to non-payment of rentals to the lessors.
There are reportedly no Jet flights operating to and from Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and other airports in the region.
Jet Airways said its Mumbai-Kolkata, Kolkata-Guwahati and Dehradun-Guwahati via Kolkata stood cancelled for Friday due to “operational reasons”.
“Jet flight 9W 615 Mumbai to Kolkata and 9W 675 from Kolkata to Guwahati on April 12 are cancelled due to operational reasons. Similarly, 9W 676 from Dehradun to Kolkata via Guwahati has also been cancelled until further notice,” Jet said in a statement. It said refunds were being processed.
“#ADVISORY: @jetairways (9W) has suspended its services to and from Singapore until further notice. Passengers are advised to contact their booking agent or the airline directly (info@jetairways.com) for available options,” the Changi Airport tweeted on Thursday.
According to reports, the airline owes more than Rs 3,500 crore to passengers on account of flight cancellations.
“Due to operational reasons, our flight schedule has been impacted. We realise that this has affected our guests travel plans and truly regret the inconvenience. We would like to assure you that our customer support teams are working 24×7 to ensure that our guests are re-accommodated on to alternate flights or provided with a full refund,” the airline posted on its website.
Before Thursday’s announcements, the airline was operating only 14 planes — down from 123.
In a statement issued on April 3, Jet Airways promoter and former chairman Naresh Goyal said: “We would like to clarify certain speculative media reports about our ability to operate on international routes. As informed to the regulator (DGCA), we are operating a curtailed schedule with sufficient number of aircraft, and are compliant with applicable guidelines.”
According to government rules, an airline must have at least 20 planes running for international operations.
Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola told PTI that the ministry was awaiting a report from the DGCA to decide whether Jet could continue to fly on international routes.
The airline currently owes over Rs 8,000 crore to a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India. A section of its pilots sent a legal notice to the airline last Tuesday demanding payment of salaries due since January 1, 2019, by April 14.