Mumbai: Jet Airways cancels all international flights

Pic courtesy/Sameer Markande

Jet Airways on Thursday suspended its international operations for a day and grounded its services to the East and Northeast regions. The drastic initiative was announced after the airline informed the exchanges that it was forced to ground 10 more planes due to non-payment of rentals to the lessors. "Jet Airways flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru scheduled for April 12 are cancelled for operational reasons," said an airline source close to the development.

The airline will hold its operations on the Bengaluru- Amsterdam-Bengaluru route on April 13, 2019. "All Jet operations to and from the Eastern and Northeastern regions are suspended. Following this, there are no Jet flights to and from Kolkata, Patna, Guwahati and other airports in the region," said a travel industry source.

Jet Airways said its Mumbai-Kolkata, Dehradun-Guwahati and Kolkata-Guwahati stand will be cancelled for Friday due to "operational reasons." The airline operated just 14 planes-- way down from 123 planes in operations at the peak as of Thursday noon. "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. The airline owes more than Rs 3,500 crore to passengers on account of flight cancellations alone, said industry sources.

Suresh Prabhu, Aviation Minister on Friday directed civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola to review issues concerning Jet Airways, which has been operating with less than 10 planes. "Directed Secretary MoCA to review issues related to Jet Airways. Asked him to take necessary steps to minimise passenger inconvenience and ensure their safety," Prabhu tweeted in the morning.

The government rules stipulate an airline must have at least 20 planes for operating international operations. Of the 14 aircraft that it is operated till Thursday evening, eight were wide-body B777s (seven) and an A330-- generally used for long-haul international operations. The remaining six planes were three B737s, which are largely used for flying on domestic routes besides on short-haul international routes and the rest three are regional.

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies