Hope floats: Jet Airways to bring back 40 grounded aircraft by April end

A day after the lenders put together a revival plan for Jet Airways, which involves the stepping down of its promoter-chairman Naresh Goyal and the banks providing an immediate funding of Rs 1,500 crore, the airline assured the government of bringing back into service 40 grounded aircraft by the end of April.

The cash-strapped airline is currently flying only 35 aircraft out of its total fleet strength of 119 due to non-payment to lessors. Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Tuesday said that no more aircraft would be grounded by Jet Airways’ lessors. He also said that his ministry may consider allocating Jet’s landing slots to other airlines to operate on interim basis.