Zetta Jet stopping flying

Zetta Jet, the Singaporean and US business jet charter company, is stopping operations on November 30. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in September. It had arranged a $8.5 million loan with one of its lessors and customers to help it restructure, but on November 28, in a surprise move, several creditors blocked this in bankruptcy court.

“Despite having a financing proposal from Scout Aviation, who is one of our lessors in what we planned as a reorganization in bankruptcy, the Court has surprisingly refused to sanction this investment and the continued operations of our company that you have all worked so hard to build and mature,” said James Seagrim and Matthew Walters, two of Zetta Jet’s founders, in an email to staff. “We are at a loss as to why this excellent financing package did not receive approval but it simply did not.”

The company will cease operations on November 30 with staff paid for the last month.

It is unclear why creditors chose to block the move. Many airlines have used Chapter 11 restructuring to emerge stronger and there were several companies interested in acquiring Zetta Jet when it planned to leave bankruptcy in February 2018.