MUMBAI: At airports, goodbyes are exchanged at departure terminals, and welcomes are reserved for arrivals. A little after Wednesday midnight, though, that order was shuffled at the arrivals area of Mumbai airport’s Terminal 2. After a Jetlite flight from Amritsar landed, about two dozen Jet Airways employees and contract workers bade goodbye to the twenty-five year old airline, not knowing whether they will ever meet again.On Wednesday evening, Jet announced temporary suspension of its flight operations and hours later operated its last flight, Amritsar-Mumbai flight S2 3502. It touched down at 12.22 am, about 40 minutes before schedule.“It was only when I reported to duty that I learnt that the Amritsar-Mumbai flight would be the last flight,” said Vishal Singh, a contract driver who handled the check-in bags on the last flight. He has been with Jet for five years, while some of his colleagues have put in over two decades. “After the news sunk in, we (drivers, loaders) were talking about Jet’s journey. We wondered about our counterparts who handled Jet’s inaugural flight (on May 5,1993, a Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight) and how fortunate they were. And here we are today to probably handle its last,’’ said Singh, a history graduate from UP. “I saw the faces of the pilots when they left the aircraft. Chehra bhara hua tha (pilots were gloomy-faced),” Singh said.The flight, operated with a Boeing 737 that belonged to erstwhile Air Sahara was parked in nose-in bay “Victor 23” with aerobridges. Anant Indulkar (45), a step ladder driver who joined Jet in 2005, said, “My son is in second-year engineering, while my daughter is in Class 12... I want them to have a better life, but at the last stage of my dream, Jet had to leave my hand.”Outside the terminal, as passengers from other flights walked out, there was nothing to indicate that an airline which has its hub in Mumbai had called it a day.Puneet Sabharwal, a musician who was onboard the flight, was a first-time Jet flyer. “My 6 am Amritsar-Delhi-Mumbai flight was cancelled and I was moved to this one. I hope they manage to restart operations,’’ said Sabharwal. Amarjeet Singh, a businessman, who is a frequent flyer on Jet said: “The pilots announced that it was their last flight.” Deepak Gaikwad, a contractor who provides ground staff for Jet, was present at the airport to say goodbye. “It’s devastating when you see off someone who has been with you for a long time. The whole airport will miss them.’’