Jet Airways gets air operator certificate from DGCA

File photo of a Jet Airways airplane taking off in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA chief said on May 20 that Jet Airways has been granted the air operator certificate. This will allow the airline to resume commercial flight operations.

“Aircraft and fleet plan, network, product and customer value proposition, loyalty program, and other details will be unveiled in a phased manner over the coming weeks,” said CEO Sanjiv Kapoor in a statement.

“Additional senior management appointments will be unveiled next week and hiring for operational roles will also now commence in earnest, with former Jet Airways staff getting preference wherever possible,” he added.

On its comeback, the domestic carrier plans to make its inaugural scheduled flight from Delhi to Mumbai in July-September.

Jet Airways currently has a fleet of nine planes -- five Boeing 777s and four Boeing 737s. The airline is looking to operate select flights from July-September and gradually ramp up operations to ensure a smooth switch to long-haul routes starting in 2022-23, a senior airline executive said.

Jet Airways may start offering daily flights between Delhi and Mumbai from July-September too and also has plans to offer five weekly flights to Bengaluru and three to Chennai. Following this, the airline plans to start operating three weekly flights to Hyderabad and Jaipur as well, officials said.

Jet Airways had on May 17 successfully completed all its "proving flights". A proving flight is part of DGCA’s process for the induction of a new aircraft type in an airline’s fleet. The flight allows the operator to demonstrate to the DGCA the airline’s ability to operate a flight safely and in line with rules and regulations.

The new owners of Jet, a consortium of Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan, had applied for security clearance on December 13 last year. Last month, the airline appointed industry veteran Sanjiv Kapoor, former chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara, as its Chief Executive Officer.

Jet already has more than 150 employees on its rolls and is in talks with vendors, including lessors, for the relaunch. It had stopped operating in April 2019, after being burdened by losses and debt.

It was admitted for insolvency proceedings by the National Company Law Tribunal in June 2019. After two years of a rambling insolvency process, the bankruptcy court approved the Jalan-Kalrock consortium’s resolution plan in June last year.

Jet Airways’ flying licence or AOP became dormant months after it stopped flying.