Avolon, one of the world’s biggest aircraft lessors, applied to de-register two planes it had placed with Jet Airways Ltd, making it the first lessor to do so on a non-consensual basis with the struggling Indian airline. Two subsidiaries of Dublin-based Avolon applied to India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to de-register two Boeing 737-800s, according to notices published on the regulator’s website. Avolon has terminated the leases on the planes and currently has five more aircraft placed with Jet, said sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. A spokesman for Avolon declined comment on the matter. The move by Avolon indicates an escalation of a crisis for Jet. The airline, now controlled by its lenders, has had to ground more than three-quarters of its fleet of 119 planes, many due to non-payment to lessors, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations. With debt of more than $1b, Jet has struggled to pay lenders, suppliers, pilots and lessors for months and was on the brink of bankruptcy, but was bailed out last month by state-run banks. The consortium of lenders temporarily took a majority stake in the company, and agreed to issue a loan of 15b rupees ($217m) to meet Jet’s obligations but the money has still not been released. The lenders said late Thursday that they intend to push forward with their plan to rescue Jet, but offered no clarity on interim funding, leaving the future of the carrier hanging in the balance.<br/>
unaligned
The collapse of budget airline WOW Air last month will dent Iceland’s economic growth this year and cause some losses in the banking system, the country’s central bank said in a Financial Stability report Thursday. WOW Air, which had 1,000 employees, halted operations and cancelled all future flights on March 28 after efforts to raise more funds had failed. It was the latest budget airline to collapse as the European airline sector grapples with over-capacity and high fuel costs. Recent failures include Britain’s Flybmi, Nordic budget airline Primera Air and Cypriot counterpart Cobalt. Iceland’s central bank said that although WOW Air’s collapse would cause some losses in the banking system the direct impact on the country’s systemically important banks would be limited. “The shocks that have struck recently are highly unlikely under current conditions to jeopardize the stability of the financial system,” it said. It said that the collapse of the budget airline and a failure of the vital capelin fish catch had made it clear that economic growth would be weaker than the 1.8% it had forecasted in February. It did not provide a new forecast.<br/>