Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer Sanjiv Kapoor Quits

Jet Airways, one of India's leading airlines, has stated that Sanjiv Kapoor, its CEO designate, has resigned from his position. He started working for the airline as its CEO in April of last year.

According to the source, Kapoor's final day of employment with the airline was Friday. The resignation of Kapoor is the latest air pocket that Jet Airways, which ceased operations back in April 2019, has experienced. Kapoor's departure follows a spate of senior executives leaving the grounded airline in recent months.

The Jalan Kalrock consortium emerged victorious in the bidding process for the formerly renowned airline, which was being resolved under insolvency. However, due to ongoing disagreements with the lenders, the transfer of ownership of the airline to the consortium has faced obstacles.

Jet Airways, which operated for over 25 years, entered insolvency resolution and was eventually acquired by the Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC). However, the transfer of ownership has faced significant challenges.

JKC released a statement on Friday announcing that CEO Vinay Dube Kapoor will be departing the company effective May 1 at the end of his notice period. According to a source, Kapoor's last day at the airline was on Friday.

Kapoor had taken on the role of CEO in April 2022. JKC has stated that it remains fully committed to the revival of Jet Airways and that its executive committee will oversee CEO-designate responsibilities until a suitable replacement is found.

Ankit Jalan, a board member for the consortium, stated that the new CEO for Jet Airways will be announced soon. "... Jet Airways was one of the most loved airlines in India for the last 25 years it operated before ceasing operations in 2019. I am proud of the ground-breaking business plan we put together and the progress we made though regrettably, the restart of operations could not happen as planned in 2022," Kapoor stated in the statement. Jalan asserted that JKC is nearing completion of the ownership transfer despite ongoing issues with the lenders that have caused a delay.

"The revival of Jet Airways is through a court-approved process, which has taken more time than originally estimated by us, but needless to say JKC is committed to the revival of Jet Airways. "We are in the last leg of closing the transfer of ownership of Jet Airways to JKC, subsequent to which we will settle outstanding amounts payable to previous creditors as per our approved resolution plan and shall, soon thereafter, recommence the commercial operations of Jet Airways as per our re-launch plans," Jalan said.

On January 2, JKC announced that Kapoor would continue to serve as the company's designate CEO up until the lenders' transfer of control of the airline to the consortium. The airline declared its plans to resume operations in September 2022 when the DGCA, the aviation safety authority, renewed the company's air operator certificate, however the relaunch was postponed.

Sudhir Gaur had resigned from his position as interim CEO of Jet Airways before joining Kapoor. On March 20, Kapoor stated that the new management is not "in a rush" to resume Jet Airways operations. He had previously stated that the road is a marathon, not a sprint, while speaking at a conference in the national capital.

"Consumers in a market as large as India need a choice of full-service carriers, and I look forward to seeing Jet Airways back in the skies again soon!" Kapoor said on Friday. The revival plan proposed by the partnership between Dubai-based Murari Lal Jalan and the UK's Kalrock Capital was approved by the airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC) in October 2020.

The consortium's bid was accepted in accordance with the insolvency resolution procedure in June 2021. The sale of bankrupt Jet Airways to the Jalan Kalrock consortium was authorised by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in January of this year after giving the successful bidder more time to pay the obligations owed to the creditors. The consortium had submitted two petitions, and decisions had been made on both. The first request was for permission to transfer ownership, and the second was for an extension of time to pay creditors' debts.