Bengaluru: The chief executive and two other senior figures at Jet Airways have quit, the company said, further eroding any hopes of a rescue of the carrier that grounded operations last month.
Jet, once the biggest private carrier in the country, owes vast sums to its lessors, employees, fuel suppliers and other parties. It stopped all flights from April 17 after its lenders refused to give it any more funds to keep the carrier flying.
Jet Airways, also saddled with roughly $1.2 billion in bank debt, was crippled by mounting losses as it attempted to compete with low-cost rivals Interglobe-owned IndiGo, SpiceJet Ltd and Wadia Group-owned GoAir.
The airline has been rapidly shedding aircraft in recent weeks, as lessors have rushed to deregister and repossess planes in the wake of the turmoil.
It has also lost hundreds of pilots, cabin crew and engineers to rivals and seen its valuable slots reallocated to rivals, further eroding any residual value and hopes of new investors stepping in to rescue the airline.
The departure of Chief Executive Vinay Dube comes hard on the heels of the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Amit Agarwal, announced earlier in the day. Agarwal's resignation was effective May 13, the company said.
Late on Tuesday, the company said that Kuldeep Sharma, who was its Company Secretary and Compliance Head, has also stepped down with immediate effect.
Separately, the Economic Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that Jet's Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja had also resigned. Reuters was unable to confirm the report.
