Jet Airways air hostess, face of Brussels terror attack, leads efforts to revive airlines

Nidhi Chaphekar is among a group of Jet Airways employees meeting ministers & keeping track of airlines' insolvency resolution process in a bid to get it up and running.

Jet Airways staffer Nidhi Chaphekar | Belgian Royal Palace | Twitter

Mumbai: Three years ago, Jet Airways staffer Nidhi Chaphekar was painstakingly putting the pieces of her life back together after suffering severe injuries during the 2016 terror attack at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport.

Now, Chaphekar is putting in as much intent and effort, as she put in her recovery, to revive the now-defunct airline.

Chaphekar is among those leading the efforts of a group of Jet Airways employees to get the airline up and running. They have been meeting relevant people, keeping track of the airways’ insolvency resolution process and counselling dejected employees living without salaries for months.

“I have hope and I am proudly saying this. When you all together work towards a certain goal and you have hope, it doesn’t just remain your dream, it actually becomes your reality,” said Chaphekar who became the face of the Brussels terror attack with her photograph — taken soon after the blast where she is seen sitting helpless and bloodied — making it to the front pages of all newspapers.

“It’s my birthday this month and I am sure there is some good news around the corner,” she added. “It may take two to three months for Jet to actually fly after that. But I am very sure that some good news is going to come this month.”

Established union, met ministers

The cash-strapped Jet Airways flew its last flight on 19 April before announcing a temporary suspension of its operations. As employees struggled without salaries and their dues, Chaphekar first formed a Jet Airways cabin crew union of 650 members and got it registered in June.

“The union has been formed not from an agitational point of view but more to be able to collectively work for the welfare of Jet Airways’ cabin crew members,” she said. “The pilots, ground staff, loaders all have their separate unions.”

Besides, she along with representatives of Jet Airways employees across departments such as pilots, engineers and ground staff have been meeting Union ministers and politicians to sensitise them towards the struggle of the airlines’ employees while pushing for a speedy resolution.

Chaphekar and others have so far met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, former heavy industries minister Anant Geete, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, the regional labour commissioner and representatives from SBI Caps.

SBI Caps, the investment banking arm of State Bank of India (SBI), is overseeing the resolution process.

“I, Amit Kelkar from the engineering side, Suryakant Mahadik who is president of the Kamgar Sena and representatives from the security and personnel side have collectively had some feedback about what is the next step that should be taken,” Chaphekar said.

“It was very kind of some of these ministers to give us appointments on the very next day after being allocated the portfolios, giving us 15-20 minutes to understand the situation. They have all given us their assurances to look into the issue,” she said, adding Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai helped the group in setting up appointments.

In touch with the Insolvency Resolution Professional

Chaphekar said she has also been in constant touch with the Insolvency Resolution Professional (IRP), which is looking after Jet Airways, with suggestions and requests from the employees.

“The IRP team has been very good to us,” she said. “I visit them every few days with questions and we get the sense that they aren’t here to dilute us (the airlines). They are here to revive us.”

She added that the IRP team doesn’t have an aviation background so suggestions from Chaphekar and other employees help. In one case, Chaphekar’s team had approached IRP requesting them to provide for servicing of the aircraft owned by Jet to prevent them from becoming dead assets.

“It took them a long time as you have to take permissions from the creditors, the banks have to sit and figure how many people and how much money will be required as there are different bases with aircraft such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and how many licensed people you have to service those aircrafts and so on,” Chaphekar said. “Now servicing of the aircraft has started. It shows their intent to revive the airline.”

Chaphekar and her colleagues have also pointed out to the IRP the need to ensure that the staff still with Jet Airways have their licenses in place. All categories of employees have to check certain criteria and get some training to ensure their licenses stay alive.

“Otherwise, you will have a situation tomorrow where the airline is revived but there aren’t any licensed employees to operate it,” Chaphekar said.

Above all, Chaphekar, who is also writing a book on her life so far, said, she is trying to keep the dejected and stressed Jet Airways employees motivated.

“There are still 8,000-9,000 employees on the airline’s rolls and there have been no salaries since February,” Chaphekar said. “Getting another job is not easy as the age of 35 is pretty much considered as the end of a cabin crew career.

“I try to counsel employees and tell them that in such difficult times, we often discover an earlier unknown facet about ourselves,” she added. “For example, I never thought I could write, but after everything that happened to me, here I am about to publish a book.”