On April 17, 2019, Jet Airways, which listed on the BSE in December 2004, stopped flying. At the time, the airline said it was “temporarily suspending operations”. But the temporary suspension was never lifted and even now attempts to revive the airline are yet to take shape.
Besides the closure’s impact on the Indian aviation sector and the flying public, its employees were also hit hard. Three years ago, Jet had about 16,000 staff, most of whom had to find jobs overnight. The going was difficult – salaries were cut, jobs were not easy to come by and their dues from Jet Airways were yet to come.
Says Captain Sam Thomas, President, Air Line Pilot Association, India and former Commander of Jet Airways’ 777 fleet: “All of us are pretty bitter about it and to compound it we lost almost a crore each in unpaid wages and gratuity. Despite not being paid we continued operating flights till the very last day.”
Two or three days before April 17, the top management made one final attempt to keep Jet Airways afloat, writing to the Prime Minister, the Union Finance Minister and several state Chief Ministers seeking funding. But apart from a trickle of funds nothing came, recalls a former employee, making the loss-making airline stop operations.
Today, some employees have settled down in jobs with other airlines, some have moved to related fields and others have moved beyond the aviation sector.
Also Read | An all women cabin crew? Jet Airways incoming CEO’s take on weight vs fuel savings
Sometime last year, Jet had about 4,000 employees still on its rolls. This is a ballpark figure as no actual numbers are available. Former Jet pilots say that until a few months back there were at least 70 Captains and about 100 First Officers who were waiting to restart flying with Jet 2.0 (the name given to the revival effort).
“Since then the number has come down as some have left to join international airlines. A majority of the pilots are those who are experienced on narrow-body aircraft, and some have widebody experience,” said a former Captain.
Pilots also claim that many of them paid their own way to keep their licences current, getting trained in countries such as Lithuania and at simulator training centres in India.
However, some employees realised that things were not as good and decided to leave much before the final hit. “From mid-2018 it was abundantly clear that Jet needed an urgent infusion of funds to stay operational. And the longer the management took to source the required funding, the writing on the wall became starker that Jet would have to shut down. And when it did so on April 17, 2019, there was no way it could have been revived under the erstwhile ownership and management,” says an employee who left earlier.
Not an easy transition for pilots
Some pilots who left Jet soon after it ceased operations were lucky as they found jobs with other airlines. Captain Thomas says Jet pilots found employment abroad with carriers such as Turkish Airlines, RwandAir, Etihad, Emirates, Qatar, flydubai, Vietnam and Korean Air.
Pilots were also hired by domestic airlines, including IndiGo, while widebody pilots found jobs with international airlines. Domestic carriers also quickly picked up Jet’s aircraft when it ceased operations. While SpiceJet was able to induct a majority of the Jet aircraft, some were also taken by Vistara. In fact, Vistara used a Jet Boeing 737 to launch its international operations on the Delhi-Singapore route in August 2019.
However, the going was not easy even for the pilots who found jobs. Many of them employed by international airlines had to adjust to flying ultra-long-haul routes, which involved crossing many more time zones than when they were flying with Jet Airways. Many found it difficult to adjust to this shift. Besides, with COVID-19 hitting the industry globally, these pilots saw their salaries being reduced drastically.
Also Read | 'Love affair with aviation...': Jet Airways' new CEO Sanjiv Kapoor tweets on big appointment
“Most of those who could take up employment elsewhere. The transition was not easy by any standards. There were a lot of emotions and uncertainty involved. Most of us had expected to retire with Jet Airways and had no plans of going anywhere,” says another former Jet employee.
For others the times were tougher. “I was without a job for over three-and-a-half years. But I managed, thanks to family support,” says Captain Raj Kalra, who earlier flew with Jet Airways. He and others claim that there are many who have not been able to find employment.
Misplaced faith in Goyal
Besides the pressures of finding jobs and earning a living, what made it difficult for Jet employees when the airline stopped operations was the fact that they thought that promoter Naresh Goyal would pull a rabbit out of the hat, once again, and save the airline.
A former Jet Airways Management officer who is now in a management position in an Indian airline, says that Jet had faced turbulent times leading up to the 2019 shutdown, and it was a roller coaster ride from disbelief and denial to hope and despair before the decision to suspend operations. “The Jet family was hoping against hope that Goyal would once again manage to work his magic and we would come back, like we had every time we faced turbulence,” he says.
“The grapevine had it that things would turn around as they always had. People had less faith in the business and more in Goyal’s relationships and his abilities to turn things around at the last minute,” says another employee who worked till the last day and is currently employed in an aviation ancillary industry.
“Initially Jet Airways managed to keep afloat, but one could see the effect of the reduced revenue. Salaries started getting delayed, as were payments to vendors, suppliers, etc. The only thing that kept the airline going was the blind faith in its promoter,” says the pilot quoted above.
Thomas explains the faith in Goyal: “He was a star in the industry already. The choice of aircraft, the vision, the introduction of business class and the exemplary service were unparalleled in the Indian aviation industry.”
Another employee who worked closely towards the end to secure funding for the airline talks of Goyal’s ability to steer things in favour of Jet Airways. “In 2009, when the global financial crisis hit the world, Jet Airways was stuck with several widebody aircraft, which the airline did not know where to fly profitably. Goyal was singlehandedly able to use his vast network of global airline contacts and get these aircraft sub-leased to other international airlines, thereby opening up a revenue stream for Jet Airways. Again in 2012, when there was a financial crunch as the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy in civil aviation was changed and foreign airlines were allowed to pick up a stake in domestic airlines, Goyal was able to woo Etihad to invest in Jet Airways,” he recalls.
Sunk by dearth of funds
However, all attempts at getting funding in 2019 came to naught. Another person closely connected with the attempts to raise funding for Jet Airways at that time says there was no lack of potential investors, including a large Indian business house and an American private equity firm, but eventually nothing worked out.
Also Read | Vipula Gunatilleka, Jet Airways CFO, is confident airline will soon 'regain its lost glory'
Former employees rue the fact that the concessions extended by the authorities, like asking the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and oil companies to extend the 15-day credit period to SpiceJet when it was in financial trouble in 2015, were not extended to Jet Airways.
Employees also feel that a February 12, 2012 circular (later struck down) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on how stressed assets were to be managed by banks made things very difficult for Jet Airways, which was working towards a bank-led bailout.
“When that circular was struck down in early 2019, there was no foundation on which all this could have been built and about 17-18 days later the airline was grounded. The rest is history,” says another employee.
As things stand, attempts are being made to get Jet 2.0 up in the air. Sanjiv Kapoor has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer and former SriLankan Airlines CEO Vipula Gunatilleka has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Kapoor was recently quoted in the media as saying that he expects Jet 2.0 to restart this October.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.
Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.
