Jet Airways pilots' union asks India's top court to direct lender to release funds

NEW DELHI: Jet Airways’ pilots’ union has appealed to India’s top court to direct state lender, State Bank Of India, to release interim funding to the grounded airline, according to a court filing made on Tuesday which was reviewed by Reuters.

Embattled Jet halted all flight operations indefinitely on April 17 after its lenders rejected its plea for emergency funds, potentially bringing the curtains down on what was once India’s largest private airline.

The union has also asked the Supreme Court to direct the civil aviation ministry and aviation regulator to decline any de-registration requests of Jet’s aircraft and not re-allocate its slots to other airlines permanently, according to the filing.



The National Aviator’s Guild said in its petition that SBI’s decision to not give the interim funding of 15 billion rupees, after previously agreeing to it under a resolution plan, has resulted in the airline being grounded and has impacted the livelihood of Jet’s 22,000 employees.