Jet Airways seeks debt settlement before resuming scheduled flights in early 2022

The winning consortium of Jet Airways on Friday, December 17 said it wants to infuse funds in the airline and has approached the NCLT to fast-track implementation of the resolution plan approved by the insolvency court in June this year.

The consortium, in a statement, also said it plans to restart domestic operations at the earliest in 2022 as a full-service carrier.

The Murari Lal Jalan and Florian Fritsch consortium, which emerged as the winning bidder for Jet Airways after the completion of the resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, said it wants to commence payments to all stakeholders including ex-employees, workmen, ticket claimants and lenders of Jet Airways as per the approved plan.

The consortium is ready with the required capital and has applied to the NCLT for the necessary approvals to start capital infusion in Jet Airways for further implementation of the plan approved by the tribunal in June 2021, it said.

In its latest filing before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the consortium has intimated December 22, 2021, as its plan "effective date" and sought to implement the plan as approved earlier, it said.

It added that the process of revalidation of its existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) has been fast-tracked, saying that it was initiated in August itself, within days of receiving the NCLT approval.

Besides, the consortium said it is working closely with the relevant authorities and airport coordinators on slot allocation, required airport infrastructure, and night parking and is confident to get the initial slots required to commence operations in the Summer Schedule of 2022.

"We are excited to embark on the next phase of the revival of India’s most loved Airline. We at JKC await the Hon’ble NCLT’s decision on our last filing and look forward to recommencing operations of Jet Airways at the earliest.The Consortium is ready with its investments and given the progress the team has made operationally since NCLT Approval in June 2021, we feel it is time to fund the company immediately for the revival of the business, without delay.We are aiming to start Domestic Operations at the earliest in 2022 as a full-service carrier and look forward to creating history with Jet Airways revival."Murari Lal Jalan, Proposed Promoter and Non-Executive Chairman, Jet Airways

Consortium partner Fritsch said, "I am totally aligned with Jalan and his vision for Jet Airways...the decision to invest in Jet Airways has been well thought off by me and Jalan and we both feel that now is the time that next steps of plan implementation be complied with as per orders of the NCLT."

Stating that the consortium teams are working tirelessly to ensure its revival, he said, "Jet Airways will commence its operations in 2022 with 6 narrow-body aircraft and reach over 100 aircraft fleet as a 5-year plan."

For its larger restructuring program, the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium is in conversation with both Boeing and Airbus for an order of at least 100 narrowbodies, which is said to have a budget of around USD 12 billion.

The consortium is confident of receiving the AOC in the coming months and will start operations soon thereafter, it said, adding, "We are in regular touch with the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to have Jet's AOC revalidated and we thank the authorities for their continued support."

Jet Airways has an existing AOC valid until 2023, which was only suspended in 2019 due to the financial health of the company then.

The current process taken up is towards removing the said suspension and therefore the time required for getting the AOC revalidated will be substantially lesser in comparison to obtaining fresh AOC by a new company, it said.

It also said the company has received more than 35,000 applications across job categories and the team is shortlisting candidates as per its business requirements.

Jet Airways 2.0's new corporate office is in Gurugram and the consortium is looking for a bigger office in Delhi-NCR to house the entire team in one office.

It also said most of the senior management positions as per its approved organisation structure have been filled and the consortium will introduce the entire senior management team to all stakeholders soon.

From the Vault

The Boeing B2707 was touted to be the future of supersonic travel way back in 1958, but as fate would have it, the million-dollar ambitious project by Boeing, had to be scrapped owing to several obvious reasons- economics majorly and bad marketing.

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So, what was the Boeing Supersonic Project all about?

On New Year's Eve 1966, after more than 14 years of study, design work and competition, the U.S. federal government selected Boeing to build the prototype for the country's first supersonic transport (SST).

At the time, Pan American World Airways had already ordered six Anglo / French Concordes and the Boeing B2707 was intended to be much larger and faster than its Anglo/French rival.

Tech and specs

Length318 feetCruising speed Mach 2.7AltitudeMore than 60,000 feetPower4 × General Electric GE4/J5P turbojets, 63,200 lbf (281 kN) thrust eachRange4,000 mi (6,400 km, 3,500 nmi)Wikipedia

A "swing-wing" configuration was incorporated during the initial stage of development before finally graduating to "Delta wing".

It was around this time that announcements for the Concorde were made and hence the Americans, in a bid to catch up with its European rival, hastened the production of B707, despite knowing well it wouldn't keep up with the performance standards within that brief period. Additionally, the Soviets were also working on a similar design around this very same time.

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Furthermore, the IATA released a set of "design imperatives" for an SST that was essentially impossible to meet.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) invited tenders from the US industry to build an aircraft superior to the Concorde. Giant airframe manufacturers like Lockheed, Douglas and North American and Boeing would go on to build two prototypes over the next four years for $1.44 billion in 1967 dollars which are equivalent to $35 billion today.

Why did such an ambitious project bite the dust?

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For an aircraft with speeds exceeding MACH 2, the only materials feasible for the construction of the airframe was stainless steel or titanium, working with which was considered to be daunting at the time.

Supersonic aircraft, when they cross the sound barrier, produce the iconic sonic boom, which would only add to the overall undesirable noise produced by the aircraft.

During production, the "swing-wing " configuration was found to be flawed which practically meant the B2707 could carry 0 payloads, although it did change to "delta wing" later.

Last, but not least, the "cost" factor hit the final blow on the project as the surmounting costs due to fuel and concerns from environmental activists regarding the operating noise levels of the aircraft sounded the death knell of this iconic project by the company.

COVER: Magazine

Around 1.05 crore domestic passengers travelled by air in November, 17.03% higher than the 89.85 lakh who travelled in October, the country's aviation regulator said on Friday, December 17.

While IndiGo carried 57.06 lakh passengers in November, a 54.3% share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 10.78 lakh passengers, accounting for a 10.3% share of the market, according to the data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Air India, Go First (previously known as GoAir), Vistara, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 9.98 lakh, 11.56 lakh, 7.93 lakh, 6.23 lakh and 1.20 lakh passengers, respectively, in November, the data showed.

The occupancy rate for SpiceJet was 86.7% in November, the DGCA noted. The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, Go First, Air India and AirAsia India were 80.5%, 77%, 78.2%, 82% and 74.6%, respectively, in November, it added.

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries because of the pandemic. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25, 2020 after a gap of two months due to coronavirus.

The DGCA data mentioned that in November 2021, Vistara had the best on-time performance of 84.4% at four metro airports -- Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. AirAsia India and IndiGo were at the second and third positions at these four airports in November with 82.4% and 80.5% on-time performance respectively, the DGCA said.

During the last two years, all airlines in India have opted for cost-reducing measures such as pay cuts, leave without pay and layoffs to tide over the coronavirus-induced crisis.

Domestic passenger numbers, which had reached its highest post-COVID in February, started to decline after the second wave hit India starting March. The return of passengers started in June and further started growing in September on the back of festive months of Durga Puja and Diwali.

Industry watchers expect passenger numbers to continue its upward trajectory as people have plans for year-end holidays. Travel analysts, however, are worried about the impact of Omicron – a new variant of the Corona Virus – on the number of cases in the country. Airlines say business travel has also improved leading to increase in passenger number on key routes like Delhi- Mumbai.

The call sign on Indian planes "VT" is not an acronym for "Viceroy Territory", Minister of State for Civil Aviation Vijay Kumar Singh told the Rajya Sabha on December 20.

Member of Parliament Harnath Singh Yadav sought a reply on whether the Government has taken cognizance of the fact that during the British Rule, aircraft in India had been assigned the 'VT' code by the International Air Transport Association. Then, it meant "Viceroy Territory".

In a written reply, Vijay Kumar Singh said the call sign 'VT' was assigned to India during the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, 1927 signed in Washington on November 25.

It does not mean "Viceroy Territory" and call signs that are closer to India or Bharat such as I, IN, B, BH, BM, or HT are already assigned to other countries, he replied.

However, if the call sign is changed, all documents will have to be reissued; aircraft will have to be repainted and will not be able to fly till all markings are changed. All aircraft will remain grounded during the process which will have a huge financial implication on the airlines and the civil aviation sector, he added.

Asked whether the government has taken any action to acquire any code that displays nationalism to replace 'VT', the "symbol of slavery", Vijay Singh replied that International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has allotted three series of call signs to India - ATA-AWZ, VTA-VWZ, and 8TA-8YZ.

"Call sign could be the first one or two letters of the series. As per the provisions of Annex 7 of the Chicago Convention, our country had the options to choose its call sign from above three series for aircraft registered in India," the minister informed.

This is not the first time when the issue of Indian call sign has been raised in the parliament. Earlier BJP leader Tarun Vijay had raised the issue of changing the VT registration code of the Indian airplanes in the Rajya Sabha in 2016, stating that VT stands for "Viceroy Territory" and it is a reflection of the colonial rule.

The call sign VT was assigned to India during the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, 1927 signed at Washington on 25th November 1927.

Qatar Airways said on Monday, December 20 it had started proceedings in a UK court against planemaker Airbus in a bid to resolve a dispute over skin flaws on A350 passenger jets, bringing the two sides closer to a rare legal showdown over aviation safety.

The companies have been locked in a row for months over damage, including blistered paint and corrosion to a sub-layer of lightning protection, which Qatar Airways says has now led to the grounding of 21 A350 jets by its domestic regulator.

Airbus insists the carbon-composite passenger jets are safe to fly despite some "surface degradation," while Qatar Airways says it is too early to say whether safety has been compromised.

(Image Courtesy - Reuters)

The dispute came to a head last week when Airbus, in what experts called an unprecedented move, accused the Gulf airline of misrepresenting the problem as a safety issue and threatened to call for an independent legal assessment.

On Monday, December 20 Qatar Airways hit back, saying it had taken its complaint against Airbus to the High Court in London. In a statement, Airbus confirmed it had received a formal legal claim. "Airbus intends to vigorously defend its position," it said.

"We have sadly failed in all our attempts to reach a constructive solution with Airbus with the accelerated surface degradation condition adversely impacting the Airbus A350 aircraft," it said in a statement. "Qatar Airways has therefore been left with no alternative but to seek a rapid resolution of this dispute via the courts."

A spokesman earlier reiterated it had found the cause of the problem and was working with customers and Europe's safety regulator, which has said it has not identified a safety issue.

Qatar Airways denies that the surface flaws - which witnesses say have left some of the jets with a pock-marked appearance - are properly understood and said on Monday that it wanted Airbus to mount a "thorough investigation". 

Several industry executives said such a public legal fight between two of aviation's leading players is unprecedented.

The row widened when documents revealed at least five other airlines in varying climates had complained about paint or other surface problems since 2016. Airbus had until recently maintained the problem was focused on paint on Qatar's A350s, based in the Gulf.

The planemaker has said it is proposing interim solutions ranging from repairs to repainting and has accused Qatar Airways of ignoring those proposals without reasonable justification.

Qatar Airways reiterated on Monday, December 20 it could not be sure whether the proposed repairs would work without deeper analysis. Its chief executive has questioned why Airbus is still working on a solution if a reliable fix is already available.

The 21 grounded jets represent 40% of its current fleet of A350s, for which it was the launch customer with the biggest order. Other airlines still operate the jet, saying its airworthiness is not affected by what they term cosmetic issues.

The row meanwhile looks set to cost Airbus a big Qatar order for a new A350 freighter version. It received the first firm order for the model on Monday, confirming a previously tentative order for four planes from France's CMA CGM.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker told the South China Morning Post last week he had previously looked at placing a large order for the cargo A350. Sources now expect Boeing to win the order to replace Qatar's 34-35 freighters.

(With Inputs from Reuters)

Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun and Airbus Americas CEO Jeffrey Knittel on Monday, December 20 urged the Biden administration to delay the planned deployment of new 5G wireless services, saying it could harm aviation safety.

The executives in a joint letter asked the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to support postponing AT&T and Verizon's January 5 deployment of C-Band spectrum 5G wireless.

"5G interference could adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate," the letter said, adding it could have "an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry."

The industry and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have raised concerns about the potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters.

FAA this month issued airworthiness directives warning 5G interference could result in flight diversions. The agency plans to provide more information before January 5.

The Boeing Airbus letter cited an analysis from trade group Airlines for America (A4A) that if the FAA 5G directive had been in effect in 2019, about 345,000 passenger flights and 5,400 cargo flights would have faced delays, diversions or cancellations

In November, AT&T and Verizon delayed the commercial launch of C-band wireless service by a month until January 5 and adopted precautionary measures to limit interference.

Recently, The Federal Aviation Administration announced a new rule that forbids pilots from using auto-landing and other certain flight systems at low altitudes where 5G wireless signals could interfere with onboard instruments that measure a plane’s distance to the ground.

Pilots typically rely on types of equipment known as radio altimeters to land safely in areas of low visibility. 5G signals could lead to faulty readings that may make flying unsafe in these conditions.

While C-band 5G and these radio altimeters don’t operate in the same band, they are close enough for potential interference. Although carriers and their lobbying group, the CTIA, have suggested that there isn’t a valid reason to fear interference, a lot would have to be done to convince the FAA of otherwise.

Aviation industry groups said that was insufficient. Boeing and Airbus said they made a counterproposal that would limit cellular transmissions around airports and other critical areas.

United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby said last week that FAA's 5G directives would bar the use of radio altimeters at about 40 of the country's biggest airports. Wireless industry group CTIA said 5G is safe and accused the aviation industry of fearmongering and distorting facts.

The Air Line Pilots Association on Monday said that aviation and communications regulators are at a stalemate. "That's a big problem for passengers, shippers and the American economy," the group said.

(With Inputs from Reuters)