News that would be music to the ears of former employees, Jet Airways is set to resume domestic operations in the first quarter of 2022 after being grounded for more than two years.

In an official statement, Jalan Kalrock Consortium said that the process of reviving the grounded carrier is on track with the existing Air Operator Certificate (AOC) already under process for revalidation.

"Jet Airways 2.0 aims at restarting domestic operations by Q1-2022, and short-haul international operations by Q3/Q4 2022," Murari Lal Jalan, Lead Member of the Jalan Kalrock Consortium and the proposed Non-Executive Chairman of Jet Airways said.

On 17th April 2019, The airline suspended operations due to financial distress. It undertook its last flight from Amritsar to Mumbai on a Wednesday night as the lenders and stakeholders decided not to pump more money into the two-decade-old airline. With that last flight, the jobs of over 16,000 employees vanished in thin air. 

The events cascaded further when the top management leaders at Jet Airways resigned from the company, with the whole C-suite bidding adieu to the sinking ship after the suspension of flight operations.

With many employees at risk of derailing displacement, Spice Jet and WeWork opened up their gates to actively accept job applications from ex- Jet Airways staff. Even Lowe's India, the technology products and solutions center for Lowe's Companies, also offered to recruit employees from the IT division of the airline.

Now putting the dark days behind them, the airline has started its own hiring activities as the private carrier gets closer to being back in the skies. In an official statement, Jet Airways shared that it has started hiring professionals and would be looking to onboard them soon. It also announced that the airline would have a fleet of more than 50 aircraft in 3 years and over 100 in 5 years. 

Since the suspension, the airline had been undergoing a resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for over two years. Now that they have achieved the goal of returning to action, it would be interesting to see how quickly Jet Airways can cover up the lost time and thrive as they move forward in their transformational journey.