Suresh Prabhu asks aviation ministry to hold emergency meeting on Jet Airways

Union minister for civil aviation Suresh Prabhu has asked the civil aviation ministry to hold an emergency meeting on the worsening situation of Jet Airways and its implications on passengers.

"Directed Secretary, MoCA GoI to hold an emergency meeting on grounding of flights by Jet Airways, Advance bookings, Cancellation, Refunds and Safety issues, if any. Asked him to get a report on Jet compliance issues immediately from DGCA," Prabhu said on the micro-blogging platform of Twitter.

Jet Airways has been grounding a number of planes since February 7 due to non-payment of lease rentals as a result of severe financial crunch. As per the company's exchange fillings, a total of 41 planes are grounded due to non-payment of dues to lessors.

However, the aircraft tracking websites like Flightradar24 shows just 53 planes—around 45% of the airline's fleet of 119 aircraft—are currently active.

This has resulted in chaos as passengers are facing abrupt cancellations and the customer service facility of the airline also takes about 24 hours to respond.

The airline has still not found a way to infuse emergency support of Rs 750 crore rupees as talks with Etihad Airways, which has 24% stake in the airline, and lenders have remained inconclusive so far.