Jet Airways has hit its first roadblock; just ahead of the re-launch, three top executives resigned from their posts giving rise to speculation in the Indian aviation industry. Vishesh Oberoi, director of flight operations; Neeraj Chandan, director of flight safety; and Sorab Variava, director of training, have all resigned in the last month.
All three executives are nominated post holders under the rules of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA, India). This mandates the airline to fill all three posts before launch. As per sources, Jet is already planning to fill up the posts by the end of this month.
Another senior executive, Vishesh Khanna, vice president-sales, distribution, and customer engagement, resigned in March and joined rival IndiGo.
Top executives leaving the airline at the crucial stage of launch has raised many eyebrows in the aviation industry. However, the new owners of Jet, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium (JKC) have brushed the matter aside as exits and entries are part of every organisation. They go on to say that Jet airways is fully prepared to launch Jet 2.0 soon.
The question remains is how soon? Jet Airways received its flying permit before Akasa Air and was planning to re-launch domestic flights starting this month. However, no official announcement has been made.
Jet is currently busy with the hiring and training process of new staff along with negotiations with Airbus and Boeing for its fleet modernisation plan. The latest reports state that Jet is in advanced talks with Airbus for an order of 50 A220s, but will temporarily kick-start domestic operations with a limited capacity of 737s.
Last June, the National Company Law Tribunal cleared the JKC’s resolution to revive the grounded Jet Airways for INR 475 crore.