New Delhi: Jet Airways, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, has suspended operations on 13 more overseas routes till the end of next month. The cash-strapped carrier also grounded seven more aircrafts due to non-payment of rentals, taking the tally of such planes to 54. Jet has cut down frequencies on seven other international routes, a majority of which come from Delhi and Mumbai, airline sources said.
"An additional seven aircraft including two planes of JetLite, have been grounded due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under their respective lease agreements," the airline said in a filing to the stock exchanges late evening Friday.
As mentioned earlier, Jet is actively engaged with all its aircraft lessors and is regularly updating them on the efforts taken to improve the liquidity, the Naresh Goyal-controlled airline added.
Routes where services have been withdrawn temporarily comprise Pune-Singapore (seven a week), and Pune-Abu Dhabi (seven flights a week), sources said. Services on the Mumbai-Manchester route have already been suspended.
Since only one-third of its 119-strong fleet is operational, Jet's operations have been cut down to one-fourth from more than 600 daily flights previously. Jet also stopped services from Delhi to Abu Dhabi (nine each week), Dammam (14 each week), Dhaka (11), Hong Kong and Riyadh (seven each) up to April 30, said the airline source.
Jet also suspended services on the Bangalore-Singapore route till April 30.