Jet Airways collapse: airline has treated its customers poorly as it grounds all flights

On Wednesday, shortly after Jet Airways announced it was suspending all flights, Ayshea Stacey set me a challenge.

“Any advice on how to get my daughter home from Mumbai to London?”

Shay Stacey is one of hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded by the slow-motion shutdown of the Indian carrier.

For the past few weeks Jet Airways has cancelled thousands of flights at short notice, vowing to grounded travellers that they would be assigned a replacement departure or be sent a full refund “in seven to 10 working days”. Since the firm’s debt has been ascending though 90bn rupees (?1bn), and the deeply troubled Indian airline has not paid its pilots all year, that latter promise looked shaky.

When, on 11 April, Jet Airways abruptly announced that no international flights would operate over the weekend, it looked like the final curtain for a carrier that has been flying for a quarter of a century.

But even after the airline transferred its priceless slots at Heathrow to Etihad Airways, Jet Airways insisted the links with Delhi and Mumbai would be reinstated.

The dogged refusal to capitulate to the formidable force of financial reality may look virtuous. But in reality it was vicious. Pretending its planes would be flying once again caused damage and distress to Shay Stacey and her fellow ticket holders.

Normally it is clear when the last throw of the aviation dice has failed, and an airline is bust. When Monarch, Flybmi and Wow Air had exhausted a cavalry’s worth of potential “white knights”, they threw in the towel: desperately sad for the staff, challenging for passengers left with worthless tickets. But at least each was a clear-cut collapse that gave travellers certainty, and encouraged other airlines immediately to offer “rescue fares” to help extricate stranded passengers.

Jet Airways, in contrast, has been prolonging the misery, marooning many passengers with empty promises of seats on flights that will never depart.

With every day that the airline pretended suitors were lining up outside the Mumbai HQ with a 15bn rupee (?165m) bag of cash to keep the planes flying, 1,000 eastbound and 1,000 westbound travellers between the UK and India were strung along.

Passengers with sufficient headroom on their credit cards could buy new flights, but what if Jet Airways really was up in the air once more? Neither their travel insurer nor their card provider would be interested in compensating a passenger for doubling down on a flight.

So instead they waited until the end: Wednesday’s announcement that the airline didn’t even have enough cash to pay for fuel, and that the last Jet Airways flight would take off that evening from Amritsar to Mumbai.

Whereupon Shay Stacey and the rest of the unwitting Jet set suddenly had a very big problem: they were all simultaneously looking for flights to or from India.

Predictably enough, the surge in demand caused a massive spike in fares. Flights between the UK and India are, in my experience, usually packed. Desperate travellers bid up the price for the few remaining seats on nonstop flights above ?1,200 one way. Which is why I found myself checking the bus schedule between Sharjah and Dubai on Shay Stacey’s behalf.

As I tried to find a way home for her that would not break the credit limit, two travel truths conveniently coincided: Sharjah, the neighbouring emirate to Dubai, is the budget gateway to the UAE from the Indian subcontinent; and you can always find a cheap ticket from Dubai to London if you are prepared to go around the houses.

Given the demand to leave Mumbai, the Air India flight on Thursday from to Sharjah looked good value at ?285; the bus from Sharjah airport added less than a fiver to the cost; and an implausible connection from Dubai via Katowice in Poland to Luton confirmed my theory and completed the entertainment for another ?207. All Shay’s for less than ?500.

Once home she can set about claiming a refund for her unused ticket from the credit card firm – but even that task may be tangled, because the carrier insists its grounding is only temporary. Even though a rescue plan for Jet Airways looks as much of a lost cause as Theresa May’s Brexit deal, the airline is still talking itself up to a considerable altitude, proposing a “quick revival” next month.

“Jet Airways is hopeful that it will be able to bring the Joy of Flying back to its guests as soon as possible.” In the extremely unlikely event that the farewell letter is correct – au revoir, not adieu – I imagine that Shay Stacey and every other “guest” who has been so poorly treated will be seeking joy from flying on anyone but Jet.