Jet Airways CEO-designate Sanjiv Kapoor Quits

The Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC) today announced that Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer-designate for Jet Airways, is departing the company effective Monday, May 1, on the conclusion of his notice period," the airline said in a statement. 

Earlier in January this year, the airline, which shuttered operation in 2019, had announced that Sanjiv Kapoor would remain the CEO-designate of the company till the airline's ownership was transferred to the consortium of Dubai-based Murari Lal Jalan and the UK's Kalrock Capital by the lenders.

The consortium had in March 2022 announced the appointment of Sanjiv Kapoor as the CEO of the airline with effect from April 4, 2022.

An earlier report by CNBCTV18 had mentioned that Kapoor had been asked to refrain from using the title CEO of Jet Airways by the head of the Jet Airways management committee and erstwhile Resolution Professional Ashish Chhawchharia. 

Kapoor reportedly had in February this year requested telecom major Vodafone to not repeatedly call him to ‘convince me not to switch carriers.’

The alumnus of La Martiniere School in Kolkata, with an MBA from Wharton (University of Pennysylvania) had remained the chief strategy and commercial officer at Vistara where he oversaw strategy, marketing, network planning and other functions.

Controversy over Jet Airways CEO title

The Jalan-Kalrock consortium and resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia had earlier locked horns regarding Sanjiv Kapoor retaining the CEO designation. 

While the latter latter had objected to the decision citing the fact that ownership of the airline has still not been transferred to the winning bidder Jalan-Kalrock consortium. 

In a letter, the monitoring committee had on 28 December 2022 stated that Kapoor’s tenure as the CEO of the airline will only commence once his appointment is approved and once the transfer of ownership is complete, adding that until the transfer, the monitoring committee is overseeing the airline.

However, the consortium in January 2023, clarified that Kapoor as the chief executive officer designate of Jet Airways required no further approval from any statutory authority

Jet Airways revival plan

In March, the then Jet Airways CEO-Designate Sanjiv Kapoor had said the new management does not want to be "in a rush" to restart operations while asserting that the airline will be unique and different.

The ownership transfer of the airline under the insolvency resolution plan has been facing hurdles over differences between the winning bidder and lenders.

In October 2020, the airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved the revival plan submitted by the consortium of Dubai-based Murari Lal Jalan and the UK's Kalrock Capital. In June 2021, the consortium's bid was approved under the insolvency resolution process.

However, the implementation of the plan is getting delayed.

The airline's air operator certificate was revalidated by aviation safety regulator DGCA in May 2022 following which it announced its plans to recommence operations in September 2022 but later pushed the relaunch date further.

“The revival of Jet Airways is through a Court Approved Process, which has taken more time than originally estimated by us" JKC stated in the press release. 

"We are in the last leg of closing the transfer of ownership of Jet Airways to JKC, subsequent to which we will settle outstanding amounts payable to previous creditors as per our approved Resolution Plan and shall, soon thereafter, recommence the commercial operations of Jet Airways as per our re-launch plans." the statement added.