Jet Airways gets DGCA nod to fly again after 3 yrs

The civil aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has granted air operator's certificate (AOC) to Jet Airways to resume flight operations, a new agency reported. The DGCA approval to the airline comes three years after it was grounded due to financial crunch. A day earlier, the private airline had completed the proving flights needed to secure regulator’s approval to resume operations. Before that, it successfully completed test flights earlier this month.

The Jalan-Kalrock consortium, owner of the airline, completed the required two sets of proving flights May 17, with 31 people on board, including officials of DGCA. The airline had conducted the first set of ‘proving flights’ on May 15, with 18 people on board on the Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Delhi routes using a Boeing 737 aircraft. The second set of flights was conducted using the same plane on the Delhi-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Delhi routes.

Before that, Jet Airways conducted its ‘test flights’ on its 29th anniversary on May 5 in Hyderabad, and a positioning ferry flight to Delhi.

AOC or air operator’s certificate is an approval granted by a civil aviation regulator to an airline for using its aircraft for commercial purposes. The approval is granted after the airline has in place its personnel, aircraft, assets and systems to ensure the safety of its passengers and employees.

Jet Airways was grounded on April 17, 2019, after it failed to pay vendors due to bankruptcy under founder Naresh Goyal. The Jalan-Kalrock consortium had taken over the airline in October 2020 after placing the successful bid during the corporate insolvency resolution process from June 20, 2019 until June 22, 2021.

Murari Lal Jalan is a Dubai-based NRI businessman and Kalrock Capital is a financial advisory and asset management company. In March, aviation veteran Sanjiv Kapoor was appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Jet Airways. Kapoor, who earlier served as the chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara and the chief operating officer at SpiceJet, was scheduled to join Jet from April 4, 2022.

The airline wants to have a pan-India route network, initially with less frequency. The new management targets to start the operations by early next year.

Currently, there are six big airlines operating in India -- Tata-owned airlines (Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India) IndiGo, SpiceJet and Go First, with IndiGo holding the largest market share of over 54%.

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