The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued the air operator certificate (AOC) to Jet Airways on May 20 after the airline completed two sets of proving flights required for the clearance. The certificate allows an airline to operate its flights for commercial purposes. The approval is granted after the airline has in place its personnel, aircraft, assets and systems to ensure the safety of its passengers and employees.

The airline had conducted the first set of proving flights earlier this month with 18 people on board on the Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad-Delhi routes using a Boeing 737 aircraft. The second set of flights was conducted a few days later using the same plane on the Delhi-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Delhi routes, with 31 people on board, including DGCA officials.

Jet Airways was grounded on April 17, 2019, after it failed to pay vendors due to bankruptcy under founder Naresh Goyal. The Jalan-Kalrock consortium had taken over the airline in October 2020 after placing the successful bid during the corporate insolvency resolution process from June 20, 2019, until June 22, 2021. Murari Lal Jalan is a Dubai-based NRI businessman and Kalrock Capital is a financial advisory and asset management company.

Since the airports had allocated the earlier slots of Jet Airways to other operators, the airline is still in discussions with the authorities to secure slots for its flights. The airline wants to have a pan-India route network, initially with less frequency. The new management targets to start the operations by September this year.

Prabh Sharan Singh

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