Jet Airways cancels all international flights till Monday; PMO holds urgent meeting

New Delhi, Apr 12: Jet Airways, facing its worst existential crisis in its over 25-year-old history, on Friday extended suspension of its international operations till next Monday due to severe liquidity issues.

Jet Airways spokesperson said,''Jet Airways has cancelled its international operations from 12-15 April, 2019. It is working to minimise guest inconvenience using its 24x7 Contact Centre, Guest Relations & Social Media response teams, to handle schedule adjustments.''

''In parallel, the airline's management and its key stakeholders including its consortium of lenders, continue to work closely towards resolving the current situation,'' the spokesperson said.

Jet was the largest domestic carrier operating in the international sector with a hub in Amsterdam, where a cargo agent had taken possession of an aircraft this on Tuesday demanding bill payment. This led to the cancellation of the Amsterdam-Mumbai flight that day.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) held an urgent meeting to discuss the crisis in private airline Jet Airways, which is facing acute financial woes.

According to sources, the meeting has been called after Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu asked the secretary of the department to review issues concerning Jet Airways. Crisis-hit Jet Airways is facing acute financial crunch and has grounded several of its flights and stopped international operations.

The drastic measure was announced after the airline informed the exchanges that it was forced to ground 10 more planes due to non-payment of rentals to the lessors.

The employee union had also sought to register FIRs against airlines' founder Naresh Goyal, chief executive Vinay Dube and SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar for non-payment of March salary, even as passengers continued to bear the brunt of last minute cancellations and missing refunds.

(with PTI inputs)