Jet Airways forced to ground 7 more aircraft

India’s second-largest airline carrier Jet Airways informed the bourses on Wednesday that they have grounded an additional seven aircraft. The company had to land 13 aircraft this month due to non- payment of lease rentals to lessors.

The airline is facing severe financial crises and is actively looking to restructure its debt and raise funds. The company has been regularly engaged with all its aircraft lessors in order to update them about the measures taken to improve its liquidity.

The company had first informed the stock exchanges that it had grounded four aircraft on February 7. This was followed by another announcement on February 23 that another two planes had to be grounded.

Jet Airways has trimmed its fleet by 28 aircraft in the last two months and are expected to ground another 12 aircraft in March. This trimming of the fleet has impacted Jet’s operations. The airline is also struggling to get approvals from various stakeholders for a resolution plan.

Jet Airways is now debt-ridden, cash-starved and has delayed paying salaries and cut the workforce over the last year. The company faced a mass sick leave by engineers after the company threatened to sack one of them. The pilots had also threatened to go on a strike but called it off considering the recent security issues in the country.

On Thursday, Jet Airways was trading at Rs. 216.95 per share, 3.51  per cent on the BSE.