The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) On Tuesday gave its green light for the Kalrock-Jalan Consortium’s resolution plan for the revival of Jet Airways, albeit with certain riders. The Mumbai bench of the tribunal has asked aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the aviation ministry to decide on the slots within 90 days from Tuesday.
After being grounded in April 2019, the airline slots were allocated to other airlines. The bench presided by judicial members—Janab Mohammed Ajmal and V. Nallasenapathy—had reserved its order after hearing all parties, including the successful resolution applicant, lenders, DGCA and others.
In an oral order, the bench also said that if further extension of the effective date is required, the resolution applicant (Jalan Kalrock Consortium) can approach the tribunal again.
On the historicity of slot allocations for Jet Airways, the tribunal said it was not giving a direction and the issue will be handled by the government or the appropriate authority.
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.
The Jet Airways insolvency was underway for nearly two years. It has admitted creditor claims of over Rs 15,000 crore.
The consortium, in October 2020, won the bid for Jet Airways, after it proposed to repay financial creditors and employees around Rs 1,200 crore over five years and was hopeful of re-establishing Jet Airways as a full service airline with 30 aircraft within six months.
While Kalrock is a UK-based asset management company, Murari Lal Jalan is an entrepreneur who's based out of the UAE. Both the firms have no prior experience in running an airline.