Air India (AI, Delhi International) has applied to State Bank of India to lease five B777-300(ER)s previously operated by inactive Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai International), Times of India has reported.
The privately-owned carrier operated ten Boeing widebodies. Although it formally owned the aircraft, US EXIM Bank (United States of America) issued a notice to repossess them in early April. The ten units were acquired with the American institution's financial guarantees.
Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that Jet Airways suspended B777 operations even before the total grounding, on April 12, 2019. Four each are stored at Delhi International and Mumbai International and one each at Chennai and Amsterdam Schiphol.
Air India is proposing to use the aircraft to launch a new route from Mumbai International to Dubai International and to add frequencies to the existing services between Mumbai and London Heathrow, and between Delhi International and Dubai, London, and Singapore Changi.
The Indian flag carrier already operates fifteen in-house B777-300(ER)s.
Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani also floated the idea of adding some ex-Jet Airways B737-800s to the carrier's subsidiary Air India Express (IX, Delhi International).
Meanwhile, ANI has reported that SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) will add six more B737-800s to its fleet within the next ten days, in addition to sixteen units of the type it previously sourced to cover for the grounding of B737-8s. Presumably, all twenty-two narrowbodies would be ex-Jet Airways equipment. The grounded carrier operated fifty-four B737-800s and its subsidiary JetLite (Delhi International) a further five.
The collapse of Jet Airways also freed up hundreds of slots at Indian airports, including 280 in Mumbai and 160 in Delhi. The government will assign them to other airlines for an initial period of three months. If Jet Airways is able to resume operations within this time, it stands a chance to regain some of its slots.
Indian airlines therefore have additional motivation to scoop ex-Jet Airways aircraft quickly as the freed up slots will be distributed to the carriers who will be able to use them immediately.
