JPMiles 'secure and remain intact', says JetPrivilege after Jet Airways shutdown

JetPrivilege, a frequent flyer programme of Jet Airways, has clarified that the value of their members' JPMiles are "secure and remain intact". It comes after Jet Airways, one of India's largest private airline, temporarily shut down its operations on Wednesday as the State Bank of India (SBI)-led lenders' consortium refused to inject emergency funding of Rs 400 crore.

The embattled airline was forced to stop all its flights after almost 26 years of its operations. The last flight of the debt-ridden airline took off at 10.30 pm on Wednesday.

In a statement issued shortly after Jet Airways announced the temporary closure of its operations, JetPrivilege said, "with our air reward offering, 'Select Flights', members have the choice to redeem their JPMiles to fly free across more airlines, any destinations, any flights and any seats in India and globally, starting with the same JPMiles requirement as before which was applicable on Jet Airways and its partner airlines."

In a regulatory filing to the stock exchange, the carrier has said that it is not in a position to pay for fuel or other critical services. The submission read, late (Tuesday) night, Jet Airways was informed by State Bank of India (SBI), on behalf of the consortium of Indian Lenders, that they are unable to consider its request for critical interim funding ... the airline will not be able to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, Jet Airways is compelled to cancel all its international and domestic flights. The last flight will operate Wednesday."

Notably, the decision was taken after a painstaking evaluation of all the possible ways to rescue the beleaguered airline. The closure of its operations became evident on Tuesday evening when after the marathon rounds of meetings, the Jet management and lenders could not reach a consensus pertaining to infusing emergency funds.

The carrier's board authorised CEO Vinay Dube to take a call on its shutting down operations after it made a desperate attempt with lenders for immediate funds infusion.

In an e-mail to it employees, Dube said, "because no emergency funding from lenders or any other source of funding is forthcoming, it will not be possible for the company to pay for fuel or other critical services to keep the operations going. Consequently, with immediate effect, we are compelled to cancel all international and domestic flights."

"A decision like this is never easy to make, but without the interim funding, which we have been repeatedly requesting for, we are simply unable to conduct flight operations in a manner that delivers to the very reasonable expectations of our guests, employees, partners and service providers. Over the last several weeks and months we have tried every means possible to seek funding, both interim funding as well as long term funding, to keep our operations going, but we were not successful," he added.