NEW DELHI: Lessors to India’s Jet Airways Ltd are planning to ask the country’s aviation regulator to de-register many more planes leased to the airline, three sources said, signalling that a planned bailout of the troubled carrier is failing to assuage their concerns. About six of Jet’s lessors are likely to apply to India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to de-register up to 15 of the grounded planes, over the next 10 days, said one of the sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Once a plane is de-registered, the lessors are free to take them out of the country and lease them to other airlines.
While some lessors have already taken a few planes out of India after a mutual agreement with Jet, sources have said, the latest series of applications to the DGCA would be on a non-consensual basis.
Jet did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jet, India’s oldest private carrier now controlled by its lenders, has had to ground more than three-quarters of its fleet of 119 planes, many due to non-payment to lessors, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations.— Reuters
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