India’s Jet Airways ‘unable to pay for fuel’ shuts all flights indefinitely, apologises to travellers as funds dry up

Saddled with roughly US$1.2 billion of bank debt, the Indian airline has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stopgap loan of about US$217 million from its lenders

At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights. The airline has roughly 16,000 employees

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Jet Airways aircraft parked at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. Photo: EPA

Published: 9:15am, 18 Apr 2019Updated: 9:55pm, 18 Apr 2019

Embattled Jet Airways halted all flight operations indefinitely on Wednesday after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially bringing the curtains down on what was once India’s largest private airline.

The carrier, saddled with roughly US$1.2 billion of bank debt, has been teetering for weeks after failing to receive a stopgap loan of about US$217 million from its lenders, as part of a rescue deal agreed in late March.

“The airline has been left with no other choice today but to go ahead with a temporary suspension of flight operations,” the company said in a two-page statement late on Wednesday.

At its peak, Jet operated over 120 planes and well over 600 daily flights. The airline, which has roughly 16,000 employees, has in recent weeks been forced to cancel hundreds of flights and to halt all flights out of India, as funds have dried up.

An employee of Jet airways checks her phone as she sits outside their ticketing counter at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. Photo: AP

Intense competition from low-cost carriers, like Interglobe-owned IndiGo and SpiceJet Ltd, together with higher oil prices, hefty fuel taxes and a weak rupee have piled pressure on the airline in recent months.