Jet Airways is ready for take off again 🔥
What happened — National Company Law Tribunal, GOI’s muscle that handles corporate resolutions, has finally signed off for new owners to take over the kneecapped airline Jet Airways, clearing the way for the company to start running flights after a 3 year pause.
To remind ya, Jet, operating in India's brutally competitive and over-regulated airline industry, was essentially run into the ground by its previous owners, with the barely-profitable airline (even on its best days) amassing a debt pile of over $3 billion.
Jet’s new owners will now be a joint consortium led by little-known ex-paper trader businessman Murari Lal Jalan, who runs a diversified empire through the Middle East, along with UK based advisory firm Kalrock Capital.
Going forward — Jet Airways will have to figure out its operations over the next few months — including sourcing fuel, staffing, distribution of fleet, and securing itself routes to make “round 2” worthwhile.
Big picture — for the year before COVID, Jet had lost nearly $350 million, and 2x the amount for the year before that. Clearing out the $3 billion+ debt pile is going to be an excruciatingly hard job at the disposal of new owners — with just a single tailwind in their favor, India’s growing middle class wanting to travel more frequently.
