The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday decided to allot some slots vacated by Jet Airways to other airlines on a temporary basis. "To reduce the inconvenience of passengers and facilitate induction of additional capacity it has been decided to allot some of the slots vacated by Jet Airways to other airlines on purely temporary basis, for a period of 3 months," said the ministry in a press release. The government also constituted a committee to allocate slots only to those airlines which bring in additional aircraft, the statement added.
Jet Airways had last week suspended its operations indefinitely amid a severe liquidity crisis. The airline's revival now depends on a successful stake sale initiated by the consortium of Jet's lenders led by state-run State Bank of India (SBI). With a debt more than $1.2 billion, the cash-strapped airline owes money to lessors, suppliers, pilots and oil companies.
Earlier in the day, the civil aviation ministry also asked domestic carriers to desist from raising fares on routes connecting far-flung areas especially in the northeast.
Meanwhile, Jet Airways is expected to make yet another plea for an interim funding of at least Rs. 250 crore to its lenders to restart bare minimum operations till May 10, reported news agency Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) quoting a source.
(With agency inputs)
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