Employees of the estranged Jet Airways conducted a protest march on Saturday (April 13) at the Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi demanding their long-overdue salaries.
Reportedly, employees were seen holding placards with sayings like “Hear Our Cry, Let 9W Fly”, “We have dependents to feed, plz don’t let our 9W bleed. Jet Airways”. The employees were also seen forming a ‘Save Jet Airways human chain’ to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the authorities.
Currently, the airline is only flying with 7 of its aircraft and has been announced to be under suspension till April 15.
Jet Airways has been facing a mounting debt of more than Rs. 80 billion. The airline has been forced to ground most of its aircraft because of payments which have been withheld from some of the airlines’ important lease agreement holders.
On March 25, Jet Airways’ Board approved a resolution plan in which it was decided that lenders, with the lead of the State bank of India (SBI), would invest a capital of Rs. 15 billion right away to save the future of airline which was facing imminent closing down. However, the workings of the plan are yet to be finalized and action is still due.
The SBI-led consortium had also expressed intentions to sell the stake of the airline. The deadline for the Expression of Interest (EOL) ended on Friday (April 12). In the aftermath, the bankers would invite prominent bidders by April 30.
