The Jet Airways case study is now so popular that it is mentioned in almost every Business School’s curriculum due to the airline’s unimaginable debacle. Founder Naresh Goyal has been investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and a large number of ex-employees have remained jobless after the airline shut down its operations in April 2019. April 2020 reports revealed that around 4000 employees were still on the rolls of Jet Airways, and these employees were facing tough times in the absence of any regular source of income.
Jet Airways’ shutdown is often considered one of the biggest organizational failures to have occurred in India. A lesson for many, this post covers the journey of Jet Airways and digs deep into the reasons for its failure. If you ever wondered, “Is Jet Airways coming back?”—the answer was yes, until the Supreme Court’s recent order in November 2024 for its liquidation.
After its collapse, Jet Airways declared bankruptcy, and on 17 April 2019, it decided to shut down operations temporarily. Some of its assets have gone to other airlines while a few aircraft remain parked till the bankruptcy proceedings are completed.
In this Jet Airways case study, we will delve into the Jet Airways insolvency case, which will cover the Jet Airways introduction, the history of Jet Airways, the downfall of Jet Airways, and the hopes for resuming its operations and the final descent. So, let’s get started!
Indian Aviation Industry
Jet Airways History
The Consequences of the Downfall of Jet Airways
Similar Cases In Aviation Industry
The Common Link In All Of These Cases
Reasons Behind Jet Airways Bankruptcy
Buying Proposals
Jet Airways 2.0 Vision
Jet Airways Revival and Descent
Indian Aviation Industry
Aviation is an under-saturated sector in India. As more and more Indians choose flight as the best means of travel, the availability of aircraft is yet to catch up with this growing trend. For the numbers, India has 771 commercial aircraft for a population of over 1.4 billion.
To add to the aviation industry’s woes, the majority of Indian airports are not up to the mark in terms of infrastructure. For instance, most of the airports in India have only a single operational runway, whereas countries like the US have no less than 5 runways.
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Jet Airways History
Naresh Goyal started Jet Airways with 4 leased Boeing 737 aircraft in 1993. The airline was the paragon of success for domestic carriers in India. There were rumblings of trouble brewing within Jet Airways in August of 2018 when the company deferred the second quarter results of that year.
The government watchdogs got a sniff of discrepancies in the airline’s financials. In the same month, the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) conducted a financial audit of Jet Airways. It was based on the reasoning that the deferment of employees’ salaries ought to affect their morale and attitude.
The same month, Jet Airways posted a loss of INR 1323 crores.
In September of 2018, the Income Tax department surveyed the Delhi and Mumbai offices of Jet Airways. The company was then accused of financial misappropriation. Naresh Goyal, who was then the Founder-Chairman of Jet Airways, also came under the radar of the government and its law enforcement agencies. He and his wife, Anita Goyal stepped down from Jet Airways’ operations on March 25th, 2019, after the financial crisis that the airline company was in, came in front of everyone.
Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita, were stopped from leaving India by immigration authorities at Mumbai airport. They were offloaded from a Dubai-bound Emirates flight, which was called back after it had reached the taxiway at Mumbai airport on May 25, 2019, since then, he was stopped from flying out of India.
There were charges of money laundering and foreign exchange violation against Naresh, and this led the Enforcement Directorate to question him in September 2019. He was detained and questioned again by the ED in 2020.
Legal Challenges and Bail
In 2023, Goyal was accused by Canara Bank of defrauding them of INR 538.62 crore. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in September 2023 for using company funds for personal expenses. His wife, Anita, was also arrested in November 2023 but got bail due to health reasons. Unfortunately, Anita passed away on May 16, 2024.
On November 11, 2024, the Mumbai High Court granted Goyal permanent medical bail for his cancer treatment. He had been on temporary bail before, which was extended several times. The ED opposed it, saying he could get treatment in jail, but the court allowed him to seek care outside.
The Consequences of the Downfall of Jet Airways
Jet Airways shut down its operations temporarily on 17 April 2019. The last flight was from Amritsar to Mumbai. The shutting down of the company affected 20,000 employees and more than 60,000 people indirectly. At the time of its closure, Jet Airways was reported to be in debt by over a billion dollars. NAG (National Aviator’s Guild) appealed to the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) and then-Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu to help the company and its employees.
The government on the other hand reportedly asked the banks to save the company without pushing it to bankruptcy. With unemployment being a major electoral issue for the government, an addition of 20000 to the list of jobless Indians will only give more substance to the opposition. The Government was therefore pulling out all the stops to prevent Jet Airway’s insolvency.
Consequences have been of such an unprecedented level that an employee of Jet Airways committed suicide in Mumbai. Shailesh Singh was a cancer patient and was on a break from his job as a senior technician at Jet Airways. He jumped from his building due to depression on 27 April 2019.
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Similar Cases
It is not the first time that an airline company has fallen from grace. Many companies before Jet Airways have seen a similar fate. Some of them are:
- Kingfisher Airlines
- Air Deccan
- Air India Cargo
- Indian Airlines
- Sahara Airlines
The Common Link In All Of These Cases
The common link in all of the above examples is that they all were, at some point, involved in a merger.
- Kingfisher Airlines bought Air Deccan. Kingfisher was a full-service airline, whereas Air Deccan was a low-cost airline. When Kingfisher bought Air Deccan, it incorporated some changes in Air Deccan’s fleet and we all know what happened after that. Both the companies faced a downfall.
- Before Air India and Indian Airlines merged, both of them were doing reasonably well. However, after the merger, Air India has struggled financially, with mounting debt and operational issues. As of 2021, Air India’s debt stood at over ₹61,000 crores, and despite the government’s efforts to revive the airline, it has yet to return to profitability.
- Jet Airways merged with Sahara Airlines and Jet rebranded Sahara as “Jet Lite”. Over time, Sahara Airlines faded into oblivion, and Jet Airways, despite its initial success, later faced a similar downfall, eventually shutting down its operations in 2019.
Therefore, it won’t be wrong to say that mergers and acquisitions in the case of airlines are a risky bet. A successful airline establishes a unique identity of its own, and meddling with its brand and presence usually ends on a negative note.
Devashish Shrivastava
Reasons Behind Jet Airways Bankruptcy
There are many reasons behind the failure of Jet Airways:
Merger
The merger between Sahara Airlines and Jet Airways was a mistake on Jet Airways’ part. Sahara was acquired by Jet Airways for $500 million which was way above what the airline was worth.
Rebranding Sahara Airlines
Jet Airways renamed Sahara Airways as JetLite. Sahara at the time was a powerhouse with its name on every Indian’s tongue. The rebranding cost Jet Airways a major chunk of its customers; flyers who were attracted to the Sahara brand image couldn’t resonate with JetLite.
Mismanagement
Every company and organization rests on the abilities of its management board; there are no second opinions to this school of thought. Naresh Goyal, the founder of Jet Airways, decided to become a one-man army for Jet Airways and did not hire a sound management committee to assist him in running the airline. Insiders often talk about his poor financial acumen. He relied on a single management team to handle all the operations related to Jet. Understanding that specialized teams are needed to run different departments is no rocket science. And when you acquire one more airline, you can’t rely on your existing management board that’s already burdened to take up additional responsibilities!
Full-Service Airline
Full-service airlines offer passengers the choices of economy, business class, premium economy, and first class on their flights. The company was operating as a full-service airline. Operating as a full-service airline in India is not an easy task. One needs formidable financial support and customer relationships. Catering to the wealthy, the middle class and the lower sections of Indian society requires strategy and operational excellence beyond imagination. That is why most of the companies focus on the middle-class segment and keep the prices as low as possible. Jet Airways was biting off more than it could chew.
Drowning in Debt
Jet Airways was never good with money. It kept on incurring debt and spending more than its revenue. The employees were paid lavishly when compared to the industry standards. For the sake of providing comfort and luxury, the Naresh Goyal-backed airline compromised with finances.
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Buying Proposals
Jason Unsworth, a British Entrepreneur, and CEO of Atmosphere Intercontinental Airline, expressed his interest in buying a controlling stake in Jet Airways.
However, Jason was told by Jet Airways to sit down with SBI Caps Limited, which was leading the resolution plan for the carrier.
Jason claims to have written to Jet Airways’ lenders but never received any reply in return. He later wrote to Jet Airways’ CEO, Vinay Dube, about the proposal to purchase a stake in the airline. Jason said he was provided with contacts of SBI to get in touch with. He was also in talks with other Indian entrepreneurs and investors for financing his bid for a controlling stake in Jet Airways.
The winner of the Jet Airways bid was the Kalrock and Jalan consortium, which had proposed a total cash infusion of INR 1375 crore, which included INR 475 crore that will go to meet the stakeholders’ payments and of the other financial creditors.
Jet Airways 2.0 Vision
On 18 October 2020, the lenders of Jet Airways approved the resolution plan submitted by UK-based Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan to revive and operate Jet Airways.
“The Consortium’s vision was to regain lost ground and set new benchmarks for the airline industry with the tag of being the best corporate full-service airline operating on domestic and international routes. The Jet 2.0 hubs will remain in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru like before. The revival plan proposed to support Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by creating sub-hubs in such cities,” the official statement noted.
The new management’s vision for Jet 2.0 was inclined towards increasing cargo services to include dedicated freighter service, an underserved market for Indian carriers. “Given India’s position as a leading center for global vaccine manufacture, cargo services have never been more required,” the statement added.
Abinaya Arangarajan
Jet Airways Revival and Descent
Jet Airways Revival Efforts
In 2020, UK-based Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan submitted a resolution plan to revive Jet Airways. The Committee of Creditors approved the plan in October 2020, and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved it in June 2021. The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium aimed to revive the airline, which had been grounded since April 2019 after financial troubles.
Acquisition and Ownership Transfer
In 2021, the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium officially won the bid to take over Jet Airways. However, several steps were required to complete the transfer. The consortium was given 90 days to complete the ownership transfer, which included securing certain properties, issuing Jet Airways shares to the consortium, and repaying creditors.
Approval and Operations Preparation
The Union Home Ministry granted security clearance to Jet Airways in 2022. A test flight on May 5, 2022, was conducted to prove operational readiness, followed by other proving flights required by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the air operator certificate. The airline planned to relaunch with hubs in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, focusing on both passenger and cargo services.
Historical Significance and Revival Vision
Jet Airways, once India’s largest private airline, had operated successfully for over two decades before grounding operations in 2019, affecting around 20,000 employees. The consortium aimed to leverage the brand’s strong customer connections. Plans included supporting Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities by creating sub-hubs and introducing dedicated freighter services to address India’s increasing cargo needs.
Financial and Legal Challenges
The revival faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, financial challenges, and leadership changes. Despite these setbacks, the consortium remained hopeful, with Jet Airways’ shares surging by 5% in September 2021. However, Punjab National Bank, one of the creditors, later filed an appeal against the resolution plan with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), citing irregularities.
Hopes for a Comeback in 2024
In September 2023, the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium injected an additional $12 million, furthering its commitment to reviving Jet Airways by 2024. However, on November 7, 2024, India’s Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways, officially ending the airline’s revival efforts more than five years after it had gone bankrupt.
Legacy and Closure
The Supreme Court’s decision effectively closed the chapter on Jet Airways’ comeback efforts. Despite its strong brand value and previous successes, the airline was ultimately unable to overcome the financial and operational challenges that led to its liquidation.
Devashish Shrivastava
Conclusion
As reported in March 2020, the bidders who issued an Express of Interest (EoI) to buy Jet Airways did not submit any resolution plan adhering to the requirements. As confirmed, the grounded airline did not find any buyer till 9 March 2020.
By March 2020, around 20,000 claims were made on Jet Airways which amounted to around INR 37,000 crores. Of these claims, workmen and employees sought over INR 14,000 crores, while creditors were claiming more than INR 11,000 crores from the airline.
While looking at this scenario, it seemed like the Jet Airways saga would come to an end soon. The Indian Government’s role was pivotal in deciding the course this crisis ultimately takes. However, with the advancement in 2023, powered by the Kalrock-Jalan consortium, things seemed to be looking up at last for Jet Airways.
As of September 2023, Jet Airways was getting ready to fly again in 2024. The airline’s parent company, the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, had invested another $12 million, fulfilling their promise to bring the airline back to life.
This consortium, which took over Jet Airways in 2020, had a plan. They wanted to restart the airline and fully control its operations.
But then, India’s Supreme Court decided that Jet Airways should be liquidated. This decision ended any chance of the airline coming back, more than five years after it went bankrupt. In the end, Jet Airways’ hope for a comeback was officially over.
FAQs
What is Jet Airways?
Jet Airways is an Indian International airline service provider that was founded on April 1, 1992, and headquartered in Delhi NCR. It commenced its operations on May 5, 1993.
Who founded Jet Airways?
The NRI Indian businessman, Naresh Goyal founded Jet Airways, who was also the Chairman of the airline company.
Why Jet Airways failed?
There are numerous reasons that propelled the downfall of Jet Airways but the most prominent reason for the Jet Airways shutdown is the lack of funds and mounting debt.
What is the Jet Airways insolvency case?
Jet Airways, which started off as an air taxi operator in 1993, was under insolvency for nearly 2 years after which it ceased its operations in April 2019, when it revealed the huge debt that it was in. The insolvency resolution plan was eventually brought up by UK-based Kalrock Capital and the UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan, which looked promising enough, and it is the same consortium that is finally proving promising enough for Jet Airways today.
Is Jet Airways coming back?
Yes, the news was true, for Jet Airways was coming back indeed for operations until the Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways on November 7, 2024, officially ending any hopes of reviving the airline over five years after it went bankrupt.
