Naresh Goyal, who has been the chairman of Jet Airways since 1992, has quit as part of a debt resolution plan. Goyal remaining on the board and being the controlling shareholder had long been a point of contention with Jet’s lenders.
In his letter to Jet employees, Goyal said that no sacrifice is too big for him to safeguard the interest of the airline and the families of its 22,000 employees. He said that the decision to step down was not the end of the journey but the start of a brand new chapter. “We’ve not come to this decision lightly but this is not the end of the journey, rather it is the start of a brand new chapter,” Goyal exuded confidence.
He said he has seen the airline growing from a fleet of just four aircraft flying to 12 routes in the first year, to a peak fleet of 124 flying to over 550 destinations. “Our airline stands poised to turn the page, ready to fly out of the turbulence and soar into a bright new future,” Goyal, who began his aviation journey as a travel agent, said in the letter.
Goyal, along with his wife Anita Goyal and Etihad Airways PJSC’s nominee director Kevin Knight, will step down from the board of the ailing airline, which will also receive an immediate funding of Rs 1,500 crore under a resolution plan piloted by its lenders.