Jet Airways in talks to buy planes from Boeing, Airbus
MUMBAI: The new owners of once-bankrupt Jet Airways India Ltd. are in talks with Boeing Co. and Airbus SE to purchase at least 100 narrowbody jets for the carrier’s fleet in a bid to revive what used to be the biggest private airline in the South Asian nation before it collapsed under a pile of debt.
The winning bidders for Jet Airways in a state-run bankruptcy resolution process -Dubai-based, Indian-origin businessman Murari Lal Jalan and Florian Fritsch, the chairman of London-based financial advisory and alternative asset manager Kalrock Capital Management Ltd. -- plan to start flights in the first three months of next year, Ankit Jalan, a representative for the consortium, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The group will invest around ₹1,500 crore ($200 million) via equity and debt in the airline over six months, half a year earlier than originally planned,
Jalan, who is Murari Lal’s nephew, said earlier this week.
The potential revival of Jet Airways, which forced creditors to take a 95% haircut, will be the first for any airline under India’s bankruptcy laws and will intensify competition in one of the world’s most cutthroat aviation markets. Founded by ticketing agentturned-entrepreneur Naresh Goyal after India ended a state monopoly on aviation in the early 1990s, Jet Airways became popular among fliers as an attractive alternative to Air India Ltd., offering full-service flights to cities including London
and Singapore, before a bunch of low-cost airlines ushered in cheap fares.
Jet Airways is now left with a fleet of 11 planes, including Boeing 737s and 777s, as well as Airbus A330 jets. But those aircraft are mostly old and need to be sold and replaced with newer, more fuel-efficient ones, Jalan said. A deal for the most popular model of Boeing 737 Max jets could cost more than $12 billion, although discounts are common in large orders.
Shares of the airline rose as much as 5.6% Thursday in Mumbai, their biggest jump in more than three months.