More than 2,000 years before Jet Airways (India) Ltd looked set to join the ash heap of airline history, Aristotle postulated horror vacui, the concept we understand as “nature abhors a vacuum”. While Hindu philosophers as well as those like Epicurus and Lucretius subsequently debunked the thought, it is a convenient way of looking at where the Jet Airways crisis is headed.
While Naresh Goyal may well choose to believe (and declare), that après moi le déluge—reality may be a bit more banal—even if it hurts his delicate sensibilities. Markets, especially free ones, tend to handle the loss of a single competitor with far greater equanimity than what floundering protagonists themselves display when faced with their unfortunate demise.
