Air India, Vistara stop accommodating Jet Air passengers
05 Mar 2019
Air India and Vistara Airlines have reportedly terminated an agreement to accommodate flyers with cancelled flights by Jet Airways, even as the struggling airline has reportedly grounded about 17 aircraft last week due to non-payment of dues.
The two full-service carriers said they won’t accommodate flyers with cancelled tickets from Jet, after Jet Airways ground seven more aircraft this week.
As many as 19 of Jet Airways’ aircraft were reportedly held last month due to non-payment issues.
The two airlines have scrapped their ‘Flight Interruption Manifest (FIM) Agreement’ with Jet Airways. The agreement states that when an airline cancels flights under urgent circumstances, other airlines would accommodate passengers while the former reimburses the accommodating airline.
The circular issued by Air India on Friday confirmed that the airlines will not accept passengers from Jet until further notice, while Vistara backed off saying that the cancellations were too frequent, causing commercial loss.
The agreement was an emergency arrangement for passengers, but Jet Airways is using it often, said an aviation industry official.
Jet Airways owes Rs8,200 crore to lessors and financial institutions.
The airline has been in talks with partner Etihad, and recently struck a resolution plan with Etihad and its lenders led by the State Bank of India.
So far, the Jet airlines has cancelled flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai and Port Blair.