Debt ridden Jet Airways grounds 2 more aircrafts, taking number to 25

Turbulence-hit Jet Airways Monday grounded another two aircraft due to non-payment issue making its 20 per cent fleet non-operational. As of now, 25 of its planes, which account for almost 20 per cent of its fleet are on the ground due to a severe liquidity crunch in the airline and subsequent failure to pay rentals to various lessors.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, the full-service Jet Airways said, "An additional two aircraft have been grounded due to non-payment of the amount outstanding to lessors under their respective lease agreements." The airline has 123 planes in its fleet, according to an online aircraft database portal, comprising Boeing 737s, Boeing 777s, Airbus A330s and ATRs. Jet Airways has been maintaining since February 7, when it announced the grounding of four planes, that it is actively "engaged" with all its aircraft lessors and regularly provides them with updates on the efforts undertaken to improve its liquidity.

Since then it has grounded 25 planes in tranches. The company said it was making all efforts to minimise disruption to its network due to the grounding of these planes and was pro-actively informing and re-accommodating its affected guests.

The airline also continues to provide the required and periodic updates to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in this regard, it added. However, it has not made public the number of flights cancelled due to the grounding of these planes over a period of time.

On an average, a Boeing 737 plane operates 6-7 flights per day domestically. At the same time, neither the civil aviation ministry nor aviation regulator DGCA has so far hinted any action against the airline so far, over the grounding of such a large number of aircraft and subsequent cancellation of lights.