Mumbai NCLT issues notice DGCA in Jet Airways Case

Mumbai NCLT issues notice DGCA in Jet Airways Case

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai Bench ordered the representative of the aviation ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to be present for a hearing for the matter on 12th January, 2021so that "no future uncertainty would remain in case the (revival) plan is approved."

Presently, Jet Airways' revival hearing before the Tribunal is planned for January 25th to hear the objections and approve the revival plan. One creditor, Punjab National Bank, has challenged the revival process. Representatives from the Aviation Ministry and regulators DGCA will also be present at the hearing.

The hearing will ensure that there is clear the way for the new owners to take control of Jet Airways and commence the task of restarting the airline services. The hearing also has the potential to clarify the status of Jet's domestic and international slots.

The issues must be answered before Jet Airways can return to the aviation industry. The first will be what is the status of Jet Airways' historical domestic slots. These slots have been operated by competing with the domestic airlines since April 2019. The government could clarify the status of these slots at this hearing.

The revival plan for grounded has been already approved the Committee of Creditors (CoC) since April 2019 last year, however the NCLT's final verdict is yet to be pronounced. Jet was grounded on April 17 due to liquidity crisis and subsequently went into administration in June 2019. When Jet shut operations, it had close to 700 such slot pairs, including 116 in Delhi and 214 in Mumbai.

In 2020, the CoC had approved a bid by Jalan-Kalrock consortium to revive the airline. The consortia contained in a statement on 7th December, 2020, stated that Jet 2.0 will be launched as a full-service carrier subject to regulatory approvals.

The December statement had stated, "As per the resolution plan, Jet Airways intends to operate all of its historic domestic slots in India and restart international operations. If everything goes as per plan and the consortium receives the NCLT and regulatory approvals on time, Jet Airways would be back in the skies by the summer of 2021."

The Tribunal ordered the applicant- Jet Airways to issue notice to the DGCA and aviation ministry to be present during hearing so that the matter can be heard and decided in their presence on January 12, 2021, for hearing, however due to paucity of time, the matter could not be taken up. The matter for final hearing has been listed on 25th January, 2021.