The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday approved the Kalrock-Jalan consortium's resolution plan for Jet Airways, raising hopes that the bankrupt carrier will begin to fly again by the end of this year.

The revival of Jet Airways, which suspended operations for over two years, will now depend on the allocation of slots it is able to obtain from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The Mumbai bench of the NCLT has given the DGCA and Ministry of Civil Aviation (MCA) 90 days from 22 June to allot slots to Jet Airways.

The availability of the slots will be an issue. With Jet Airways grounded in April 2019, its slots were allocated to other airlines. The resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was initiated by the lenders’ consortium, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), against the airline in June 2019.

In October 2020, the committee of creditors (CoC) of Jet Airways approved the resolution plan submitted by a consortium of UK’s Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.

In a recent affidavit submitted to the bankruptcy court, the MCA and the DGCA said Jet Airways could not claim historicity to obtain the slots. Allocation of slots would be done in accordance with the existing guidelines, they added.