Jet Airways has appointed Sanjiv Kapoor – who previously headed revenue and strategy departments at SpiceJet and Vistara – as chief executive officer, the company statement said on Friday.

Kapoor resigned as president of Oberoi Hotels on Thursday and is set to join the airline soon, the ET reported on Friday.

Jet Airways, which is now promoted by Jalan Kalrock consortium, had plans to resume operations during the first quarter of 2022 – that seems unlikely.

Kapoor would be the second top-level appointment at the airline as it recently hired P P Singh as ‘accountable manager’. Singh had earlier worked with Jet Airways and headed JetLite, a subsidiary of Jet Airways.

Jet already has about 150 employees on its rolls and it is also in talks with vendors, including lessors, for the relaunch. Jet stopped flying in April 2019, burdened under piling debt and losses. It went under insolvency proceedings by the National Company Law Tribunal in June 2019. After two years of insolvency process, the bankruptcy court approved JKC’s resolution plan in June last year.

Jet Airways’ flying licence or AOP was made dormant, months after it stopped flying in April 2019 and the airline is in the process of renewing it, according to the ET report.

At Vistara, Kapoor was responsible for strategy, network, marketing, product development and all other commercial functions, as well as key operating departments.

A TOI report quoted Murari Lal Jalan, lead partner of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium and proposed non-executive chairman of Jet Airways, as saying: “I am happy to have Sanjiv join our team… I am certain he will be able to lead Jet Airways and make it become the most preferred full-service carrier of India.”

“Sanjiv is a seasoned aviation professional.… I always believe in investing in human capital and by having Sanjiv as the CEO and Vipula as the CFO, I am certain Jet Airways will reclaim its lost glory and surpass everyone’s expectation,” he added.