From riches to rags: Journey of grounded Jet Airways

Jet Airways, which started flying on May 5, 1993, stopped all flights after almost 26 years of operations on April 17. India's longest-serving private carrier -- which flew 650 flights a day at its peak -- may now take to the skies only if a new buyer is willing to infuse funds into the airline. Known for its "The Joy of Flying" tagline, the huge loan that mounted the airline gradually crippled its wings.

Here's how the story unfolded:

Jet Airways had reported its first quarterly loss (January-March 2018) in at least 12 quarters. It also posted a negative net worth that created many uncertainties.

For the first time in August 2018, Jet employees were asked to take up to 25 per cent cut in salaries as a part of its cost cutting measures. The airline was considering various options to meet its funding requirements.

Reporting a loss for the June-quarter as well, the airline had posted third straight quarterly loss in the month of November too.

Amidst rescue talks being carried out by Jet and Etihad with bankers, the crisis-hit airline had decided to stop providing free meals to most domestic economy class passengers in December. Etihad Airways owns 24 per cent of Jet and is the second largest stakeholder.

In January 2019, Jet had delayed payment to a consortium of Indian banks, led by State Bank of India (SBI). Later, SBI had stated that Jet's lenders were considering a plan to resolve its debt issues.

In February, Jet had grounded four aircraft after failing to make payments to lessors. Later in the month, international lessors grounded more Jet planes prior to potentially moving them out of India.

The board of Jet Airways approved a rescue deal -- making its lenders the largest shareholders -- to fix a near Rs 8,500 funding gap.

Jet's woes worsen as India banned Boeing 737 MAX planes from entering its air space after an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash killed 157 people on board. This was the second incident after a Lion Air jet of the same model crashed in Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189 people onboard. The two back-to-back incidents raised questions about the B737 MAX 8's safety worldwide. Jet had to ground all five 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

Jet pilots sought government help to recover pending salaries and dues from the airline while some lessors began terminating lease deals over unpaid dues and planned to move the leased planes abroad. Consequently, the government asked state-run banks to rescue Jet without pushing it into bankruptcy.

Later in March, Naresh Goyal resigned as chairman of Jet Airways and his wife Anita also resigned from the board of directors.

Last month, an SBI-led consortium of lenders had taken management control of the airline, following which the lenders had proposed to infuse as much as Rs 1,500 crore to keep the carrier afloat till the time it gets an investor.

SBI invited bids to sell up to 75% stake in Jet. Etihad Airways and Naresh Goyal were also among the seven entities who submitted their expression of interest (EoI). However, Naresh Goyal withdrew his bid as Etihad and TPG Capital threatened to step back if the founder did not.

As Jet continued to ground planes, its employees staged protests to save the airline. With lenders refusing to provide funding of any amount, Jet's management decided to shut down operations temporarily.