Two employees’ associations of Jet Airways— The Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP) and Jet Airways Aircraft Maintenance Engineers’ Association (JAMEWA)— will connect with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) soon and become parties in the insolvency proceedings against the carrier.
The Mumbai bench of NCLT had earlier admitted the insolvency petition of the State Bank of India (SBI) for the sale of Jet Airways, following a meeting with all the leaders.
It was decided to pursue insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The National Aviators Guild, the union of Jet Airways’ pilots, is also likely to make a similar move.
After collecting all the relevant data, claims will be filed as per procedure. Earlier, the associations had approached banks with the offer of taking control of the airline, whose operations had been suspended in April. They had promised to invest about Rs 7,000 crore, including Rs 3,000 crore from investors and Rs 4,000 crore from staff members in the form of hypothetical five-year employee stock options scheme.
Jet Airways owes approx. Rs 3,000 crore to its staff.
Now that the case has moved to the insolvency courts, the bidders will come into the limelight. While Etihad Airways has not denied interest in the insolvency process, there has been no clear show of interest from the Hinduja Group.
