The Jet Airways entity is slowly rising up from the dead with the help of the Jalan Kalrock Consortium, the new owner of the airline and CEO Sanjiv Kapoor, an airline industry veteran who has worked at Northwest Airlines, SpiceJet, and Vistara before taking the CEO position at Jet Airways.
The team has been hard at work for months working to revive the airline. In May the airline conducted its first proving flights with B737 aircraft in anticipation of receiving its air operator’s permit which was granted on May 19. It is still unknown how many flights the carrier will initially operate and to where it is expected that there will be a mix of widebody and narrowbody aircraft.
Seeking Flight Attendants and Pilots
One major part of getting back into the skies is hiring staff. The airline has steadily been corporate staff to get the administrative parts of running an airline sorted out. Two-thirds of the current 200 staff are former Jet Airways staff.
Jet Airways is ramping up on its hiring and is giving preference to former Jet Airways when all else is equal. This past week the airline posted on Twitter that they are beginning hiring for cabin crew with a preference for former Jet Airways crew. Kapoor later posted that 700 job applications were submitted in the first 5 hours of the posting.
The airline is soon going to start hiring pilots and engineers while senior positions are steadily rolling out. It is likely that the airline will face many of the same pilot staffing challenges that airlines around the world are currently facing.
Currently, the Jet Airways fleet consists of nine aircraft, four Boeing 737s and five 777s. It is expected that as the airline continues to get up and running a lease or order for additional B737 aircraft may materialize. Officially it’s expected that fleet plans will be announced relatively soon, Kapoor cheekily mentioned that they are waiting for Twitter poll results and advice from all armchair CEOs before finalizing their decisions.
Return to Flying
The airline is expected to start operations in Q3’22. There are high expectations for the return of Jet Airways to the skies. The airline is remembered fondly by many around the world as a top-tier Indian airline with stellar service. The bankruptcy in 2019 was a downer for many who thought that there may never be an airline like Jet Airways again but now there is hope. There is a highly experienced team leading the charge with a proven track record of success. It’s very likely we’ll see an even better version of Jet Airways in the future.
Source: Airlinegeeks