Jet Airways disclosed on 11 April that 10 more of its aircraft have been grounded due to lease payment defaults.
The latest disclosure takes the number of aircraft grounded for lease defaults to 80, out of a fleet of 120 before the groundings started earlier in the year.
While that would indicate that the airline still has around 40 aircraft in service, reports from India indicate that there are as few as 14 aircraft in service.
Unlike previous disclosures, Jet’s statement to the Indian stock exchanges did not repeat its well-used line that lessors were supportive of its restructuring efforts.
A number of lessors have filed deregistration requests for aircraft leased by Jet Airways with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) over the past two weeks. The latest records showing that Goshawk has filed to deregister a 737-800 (MSN 39051).
A total of 11 737s from Jet’s fleet have now been deregistered by the DGCA, comprised of two managed by Avolon, five from MC Aviation Partners and four from SMBC Aviation Capital.
Aergo Capital, however, has withdrawn requests to deregister seven ATR 72-500s leased to the distressed carrier.
Legal sources tell FlightGlobal that this may indicate that Jet may have agreed to terminate the leases on those aircraft. Another possibility is that it requires the aircraft to maintain its air operator’s permit and/or to maintain certain slots at major airports in India.
Aergo was not immediately available for comment, while Jet chose not to comment, citing confidentiality concerns.
The additional groundings come a day after one of the airline’s Boeing 777-300ERs (registered VT-JEW) was seized in Amsterdam by cargo handler World Flight Services due to its failure to pay handling fees.
UPDATED: Added brief response from Jet Airways.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
