MUMBAI, April 17 (Xinhua) -- India's beleaguered airline, Jet Airways, has decided to temporarily suspend all flights from Wednesday night on dry running of cash to operate any flights further with the Amritsar-Mumbai flight at 10:20 p.m. Wednesday night would be the last.
Since no emergency funding from the lenders or any other source is forthcoming, the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operation going.
Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights and the last flight will operate Wednesday, said a Jet Airways release.
This decision has been taken after a painstaking evaluation of all alternatives that were made available to the Company and after receiving guidance and advice on the same from its Board of Directors, the airline release said.
This follows rejections from lenders to the airline's request to infuse urgent funding. Lenders rejected the request as they did not find visible cash flows that Jet Airways could generate to service any incremental loans, Banking sources said.
Meanwhile, in its response to the airline, the lenders said "The Expressions of Interest (EOI) have been received and bid documents have been issued to the eligible recipients today. The bid documents inter alia has solicited plans for a quick revival of the company. The bid process will conclude on 10th May 2019 ... We are actively working to try and ensure that the bid process leads to a viable solution for the company."
Jet Airways has informed the DGCA, and the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Finance and other relevant government institutions, of this course of action, the release said.
Jet Airways would be the seventh airline going down since May 2014. The others are Air Pegasus, Air Costa, Air Carnival, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and Zoom Air, industry sources said.
After 25 years of sharing the Joy of Flying with Indian and international guests, Jet Airways has been forced to take this extreme measure as prolonged and sustained efforts with lenders and authorities did not yield the desired results, the release said.
The suspension of all flights that the airline is operating with its five remaining aircraft would mean a significant value erosion to the bidding process initiative undertaken by the bankers, analysts said.
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