India's jet grounds much of its fleet as it awaits bailout funds

India's Jet Airways has been forced to ground more than three quarters of its fleet after failing to pay lessors as it awaits bailout funds promised by state-run banks. Jet struck a deal to escape bankruptcy earlier this year in which State Bank of India (SBI) and other lenders were to pump $218m into the firm and temporarily own a majority stake in the airline. But Jet has not got any of the funds so far and has not paid its employees for March, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. Once India's leading full-service airline, Jet was founded 25 years ago by Naresh Goyal at a time when state-run carrier Air India was the only real formidable opponent. In recent years, however, Jet has struggled to compete with low-cost carriers such as IndiGo and SpiceJet that now dominate Indian skies. Jet's operational fleet stood at 28 aeroplanes as of Wednesday, a company spokesman told Reuters, versus 119 planes last year. At least 69 aircraft have been grounded due to money owed to lessors, according to stock exchange filings by Jet, while the remainder are out of service for maintenance. Some lessors with direct knowledge of the matter said Jet had told them it would pay for one month's rental and maintenance by the end of last week, but no payment had been received. "We already have five to six months of delinquencies and we were promised just one month and even that hasn't been paid. This is very disappointing," said one of the people. Jet did not respond to specific queries on lessor and salary payments but said in a statement that the airline has informed the aviation regulator it is operating a curtailed schedule.<br/>