9W is 'on cloud'

Jet Airways has completed the regulatory formalities and is preparing for a relaunch in September. The iconic brand's come back from behind story is one for the ages. But the real test begins with the commercial operations. A special report.

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Jet Airways completed its first proving flight on May 15- one of the final steps in regaining back its air operator's license (AOL). The airline is expected to relaunch operations sometime in September after a three-year hiatus. Proving flights are similar to commercial flights with DGCA officials and airline officials as passengers and cabin crew members on board.

The special flight took off from Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport to Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, registered as VT-SXE. The airline will carry out a second probing flight in the mandatory process before the issue of an operator licence. Incidentally, the same aircraft was used for the airline's test flight, which was carried out from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad (HYD) on May 5.

Earlier, just a week before the proving flight, the Ministry of Home Affairs granted security clearance to Jet Airways.

The Jalan-Kalrock Consortium is currently the promoters of Jet Airways. Following bankruptcy, Jet Airways ceased operations in April 2019. Since then, the airline was bought by Kalrock Capital and Murari Lal Jalan consortium through the NCLT. In June 2021, the courts permitted the new owners to revive the collapsed air carrier.

The airline in its old avatar was owned by Naresh Goyal and had operated its last flight on April 17, 2019. A letter sent by the civil aviation ministry to the airline on May 6 informed it about the grant of the security clearance by the union home ministry.

According to news agency PTI, the letter said: "directed to refer to your application... to convey security clearance for change in shareholding pattern of the company/firm, for scheduled operator permit, based on security clearance received from the Ministry of Home Affairs”.