Jet Airways: Pilots, engineers unions want to be made parties in NCLT hearing

New Delhi: Jet Airways pilots, engineers unions, and two Dutch logistics vendors of the cash-strapped airline want to be made parties in the the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

The two logistics vendors of Jet in the Netherlands had confiscated a passenger jet at the Amsterdam airport late March seeking dues. Later, in May, a local ordered initatiation of bankruptcy process against Jet Airways.

The case against Jet Airways has been filed in NCLT by State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders.

A consortium of 26 bankers led by the SBI took the cash-strapped airline to the NCLT to recover their dues of over Rs 8,500 crore.

Apart from banks, the airline also owes over Rs 10,000 crore to its hundreds of vendors, primarily aircraft lessors and over Rs 3,000 crore to around 23,000 employees who have not been paid since March.

The airline has been having negative networth for long and has run a loss of over Rs 13,000 crore in the past few year. Thus it has over Rs 36,500 crore of dues and being a services company negligible assets to recover.

The debt-ridden airline had suspended its entire operations on April 17. Subsequently, the government re-allocated its slots and foreign traffic rights to rival carriers.