Stressed carrier Jet Airways (India) Ltd has only 70 aircraft or 57 percent of its fleet in operations, a senior aviation ministry official has said. This translates into 43 percent of the fleet of the airline being inactive.

The statement comes in stark contrast to Jet Airways' exchange fillings, which maintain that the airline only has 25 planes or 20 percent of its fleet not in operations.

Speaking about the Jet Airways situation, the union minister for civil aviation Suresh Prabhu said the ministry is monitoring the situation of Jet Airways very closely.

Aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), further added that it is ensuring that only airworthy planes of Jet Airways flying and making sure that passengers are not inconvenienced.

"We have told them to give enough notice to passengers ahead of flight cancellations. We are making sure that minimum inconvenience is there to passengers," DGCA chief BS Bhullar said.

Informing the stock exchanges of the groundings so far, the airline has said it remains actively engaged with all its aircraft lessors and regularly provides

them with updates on the efforts undertaken by the company to improve its liquidity.

"Aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company's efforts in this regard. The company is also making all efforts to minimise disruption to its network due to the above and is proactively informing and re-accommodating its affected guests. The company also continues to provide required and periodic updates to the DGCA in this regard," the Mumbai-based airline said.

The cash-strapped airline has not been able to pay its lessors for as long as 5-6 months, leading to the grounding of planes. In fact, payment of salaries to pilots has also been pending since November.

The situation has been getting murkier for the airline as the rescue plan or the State Bank of India (SBI)-led debt restructuring programme for funding infusion is still not in place even after approval by the company board on February 21.

In the latest letter sent by the chairman of the airline, Naresh Goyal, the employees have been told to remain optimistic and have been promised relief by March 18.

First Published:Mar 7, 2019 4:32 PM IST