In 1974, when Naresh Goyal founded Jet Airways, could he ever have imagined, such day would also come in our lives when Jet-Air will cease? The current scenario pertains to this imagination. A loss of Rs 1036 crore in Jan-Mar quarter, getting denied for the merger with the JetLite by the government, announcing 25% pay cut for its employees, losing Rs 1323 crore in Apr-Jun quarter, around 30 passengers on a flight from Mumbai to Jaipur suffering nose and ear bleeding after the cabin crew forgot to activate the internal pressure control, things kept worsening for Jet-Airways in the year 2018.
It’s unbelievable for the second largest airline of the country owning 17.8% passenger market share once and having operated at 52 destinations, to suspend all flight operations since mid-April, 2019. The airline was facing a financial crisis since February of this year, but it faced a huge loss when the lenders denied 400 crores emergency funding to Jet Airways. Naresh Goyal is largely at blame because he did take many steps without considering the advice of his professional associates, according to the sources surfacing over the internet. Biggest mistake he made was that of having a single management team that he himself led in the first place. Jet did wangle with its own business model which put the investors and passengers, both in a bewildered state of mind. It kept putting in more money than it earned and that lead to accruing the debts. In the middle of all this, the skyrocketing oil prices and lowering Indian rupees’ value became a reason for massive losses in the financial arena for various airlines. But Jet Airways was the worst affected by it.
We somehow can’t really understand the plight of Jet’s employees because the only bearer knows where the shoe pinches. According to the information, any trained pilot needs at least 1,500 to 2,000 flying hours to be acceptable with an airline, and many of the Jet co-pilots may not meet this requirement. Midst of these happenings, another action was taken by Jet employees is that they have asked for President’s intervention to get back the outstanding dues and the emergency funds for the airline. Well, if Jet Airways won’t find a buyer soon, it will become the first major Indian airline to cease, since the seizure of Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines in 2012.
