National Company Law Tribunal Directs Creditors Of Jet Airways' To Release Interim Funding To Maintain Aircraft

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has directed the Committee of Creditors (CoC) of Jet Airways (India) Ltd to disburse interim funding.

The proceeds will be utilized to maintain the aircraft of the grounded airline and to pay staff processing claims made by its various creditors.

So far, only the State Bank of India (SBI), which has the highest exposure towards Jet Airway's debt, has made a payout of about Rs 10 crore for interim funding, while other lenders are yet to make their contribution.

Earlier, a consortium of 26 bankers, led by the SBI had approached the NCLT in June to recover dues of more than Rs 8,500 crore from Jet Airways.

It may be recalled that the lenders had been trying to sell Jet Airways as a going concern for the past few months.

On July 19, the CoC had approved an interim funding of USD 10 million (about Rs 71 crore) for hiring people on contracts to verify claims made by different creditors of the airline and to maintain the aircraft.

Jet Airways has been grounded since 18 April, due to an acute fund crunch.

Currently, the grounded airline has liabilities of more than Rs 30,000 crore, including over Rs 10,000 crore in vendor dues, Rs 8,500 crore along with interest owed to lenders, over Rs 3,000 crore in salary dues, and more than Rs 13,500 crore in accumulated losses over the past three years.