Rivals swoop in on Jet Airways’ landing, parking slots

NEW DELHI: A revival of Jet Airways India Ltd, once the nation’s biggest carrier by market value, is at risk as days roll by since its operations were completely halted.

While the cash-strapped carrier awaits potential investors to pump in money, rivals are aggressively going after its most prized assets. A government desperate to limit public backlash after flight ticket prices escalated is parcelling off landing and parking slots at congested airports. Lessors are also adding to the woes by allocating grounded aircraft to competitors.

“It appears to me that lenders are not very confident of getting any serious bid,” said Starair Consulting chairman Harsh Vardhan.

“You cannot hold on to slots, and planes are not Jet Airways’ property. They have to find a buyer as soon as possible.”

Jet Airways, the oldest surviving private airline which broke into a monopoly of Air India Ltd, had a fleet of 124 and flew profitable routes like connecting India, the fastest growing aviation market in the world, with London and Toronto.

With nearly 23,000 jobs at stake, its collapse last week couldn’t have come at a worse time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who’s seeking a second term based on his businessfriendly image.

While the arrangement to give Jet’s landing slots and aircraft to rivals is temporary, the process to swap them again is complicated and is the domain of airports.

It may get more difficult once rivals start new flights and sell tickets in advance, and that could potentially leave close to nothing for a new owner.