The Hindu Business Line : Jet Airways keen to spread its wings to SAARC nations

JET Airways India Pvt Ltd is planning to spread its wings beyond the borders of the Indian subcontinent, mostly into the South Asian Association of Regional Countries (SAARC) nations and other Asian countries.

The air carrier, which is currently awaiting the approvals from the Government for its foray into these countries, is planning its first international flight to Sri Lanka following the decision taken by the governments of India and Sri Lanka recently.

Disclosing this to a group of newspersons here on Wednesday, the Jet Airways Vice-President, Ms Nandini Verma, said the flight to Colombo is slated for the third week of December.

The airlines was also awaiting Parliament's clearance to the Naresh Chandra Committee recommendations on initiating liberalisation measures for the Indian aviation industry, which was expected to boost the capacity utilisation levels and in turn the economies of scale, she said.

Aimed at making air travel affordable to large number of passengers, Jet Airways has, along with other players, represented the matter of reduction in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices to the Chief Ministers of various States. Stating that the Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have already reduced ATF prices, she said a similar reduction by other States would provide a major relief to the passengers. Following various cost-cutting measures, Jet Airways was optimistic of posting profit during the current fiscal. The airlines had suffered a loss of Rs 245 crore during last fiscal owing to a combination of various factors such as post-9/11 general slowdown, SARS, tensions in the Gulf and adverse travel advisories by various countries.

Currently running 32 Boeings and eight ATRs, Jet Airways has 255 flights a day to 40 destinations.

The company is planning to acquire another Boeing early next year though it does not have any immediate plans on fleet expansion.

While stating that Jet Airlines does not foresee any threat from small players such as Air Deccan that had gone in for aggressive pricing strategy, Ms Verma said it was currently in dialogue with Deccan for entering into a formal understanding wherein both the players would complement their fleet services, with Jet focussing on major routes and Deccan continuing its focus on smaller towns.

On the move to tap the capital market with initial public offer (IPO), Ms Verma said it was very much on the cards and the company was waiting for the right opportunity to offload minority interest. However, she said no formal decision was taken on the IPO plans.

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