Suresh Prabhu orders emergency meet on grounding of flights by Jet Airways

New Delhi, Mar 19: Union Minister of Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday directed the Secretary to hold emergency meeting on the grounding of flights by cash-strapped Jet Airways, its advance bookings, cancellation, refunds and safety issues, if any.

Prabhu has also asked the Secretary to get a report on Jet compliance issues immediately from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

In a letter written to the DGCA, their union on Tuesday stated,"It has been arduous for us to meet our financial requirements, result of which have adversely affected the psychological condition of Aircraft Engineers at work and therefore the safety of public transport airplanes being flown by Jet Airways across India and the world is at risk."

While the senior management is finding a resolution to be in business, we the Engineers who inspect, troubleshoot and certify the public transport airplanes for its airworthiness are in tremendous stress due to non-payment of salaries on time, since last 7 months. As of now, 3 month's salary is overdue to us," the letter further said.

Earlier on Monday, Jet Airways had said it had grounded four more planes, taking the number of aircraft that are non-operational due to non-payment of lease rentals to 41.

The airline is under significant pressure as 24 percent stakeholder Etihad continues to play hardball with the airline's promoter Naresh Goyal. It has put several pre-conditions to go through with a deal to save the airlines, which has seen been affected by major operational losses since 2018.

On Monday, Jet Airways informed in its stock exchange filing that it would default on bond interest payments dues on Wednesday.

Etihad Airport services in a notification to its passengers on Sunday said,"Jet Airways has cancelled all their flights from Abu Dhabi with immediate effect from March 18 due to operational reasons".