Aviation ministry tries to allay lender worries, says will protect Jet Airways slots

According to the press release by ministry of civil aviation, the government has decided to allocate some of the slots vacated by Jet Airways to other airlines on a purely temporary basis for a period of three months. To ensure that the slots are allocated in a most and equitable and transparent manner, the government has constituted a committee comprising of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Airports Authority of India (AAI), joint venture private airlines slot coordinators. This committee would be allocation slots on a temporary basis for three months only to those airlines which bring in additional capacity (additional aircraft),” the ministry added. A consortium of seven domestic lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI), has invited bids from potential suitors. Their debt exposure to the airline is more than Rs 8,500 crore. Earlier, banks had rejected emergency funding request of Jet Airways that forced it to ground operations.