Jet Airways, pilots asked to resolve issues through talks

The civil aviation ministry Tuesday asked the Jet Airways management and its pilots to sort out issues through dialogue rather than inconvenience thousands of passengers. It also asked states to examine administrative action to ensure normal flight operations.

Civil Aviation Secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar's appeal came after some 400 Jet Airways pilots reported "sick" Tuesday, resulting in the cancellation of nearly 200 flights leaving an estimated 20,000 passengers stranded.

"Our view is very clear. We have said we'd like this to be solved. Both sides should come to the table," Nambiar told a news conference here. He added that all states were also requested to examine the need to invoke provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act.

When asked how the government was treating the mass "sick leave" being resorted to by pilots, the aviation secretary said both the ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation were examining the issue.

"We will see what are the violations. These are matters that will be examined," he said. "Any act on the part of pilots that results in last-minute cancellation of flights and harassment of passengers will be treated as an act against the public interest."

He said Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal had met with him and Director General of Civil Aviation S.N.A. Zaidi to give an update on the issue and had sought their help in ensuring that the pilots report back at work.

"Jet Airways understands that the pilots are also meeting. They have to sort it out."

Asked to respond to the complaints by passengers that they were not informed about the mass strike in advance, the aviation secretary said Jet Airways has been asked to look into the matter on an urgent basis.

"Jet Airways has to take real proactive steps to ensure proper re-endorsements (of tickets) and proper warning to passengers in the next couple of days," said Nambiar and hoped the matters will be sorted out at the earliest.

Jet Airways to launch Mumbai-Riyadh flight Aug 6

Private carrier Jet Airways will launch flight from Mumbai to Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh from Aug 6, the airline said Wednesday.

"The airline will launch four services a week on the Mumbai-Riyadh sector - on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays," Jet said in a statement.

Riyadh will be Jet's second destination in Saudi Arabia as it has already launched services to Jeddah. Jet flies to six other cities in the Gulf.

The airline would fly the state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the Mumbai-Riyadh route.

Jet chief executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said the launch of flight to the new sector would further reinforce the airline's position as a leading carrier in the Indo-Gulf sector.

Jet will also launch daily service to Dubai from Hyderabad, its fifth daily service to the Gulf, and to Bangkok from Mumbai from Aug 16.

In addition the airline will also launch Kochi-Sharjah flight from Sep 1.

Jet Airways to launch low-fare Jet Konnect

Leading private carrier Jet Airways will launch a new economy service, 'Jet Airways Konnect', from Friday on select sectors, the airline announced Thursday.

The company said in a regulatory statement that Jet Konnect would offer almost all services of the parent carrier and would help the airline cater to the needs of the consumers opting for low-fare services.

"The only difference will be that Jet Konnect travellers will have to buy their meals on-board," the company said. Both Jet Airways and its low-cost carrier JetLite now offer food to their travellers on-board.

The ground and in-flight services of Jet Konnect will be handled by the airline employees, the statement said.

Initially, it will operate with two 737 and six ATR aircraft in sectors like Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Bhopal, Mumbai-Udaipur, Bangalore-Pune and Bangalore-Mangalore.

"Consumer demands are changing rapidly in a dynamic global environment. We believe Jet Airways Konnect service will give us the flexibility and speed to deploy capacity to meet these changing trends," Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan said.

The company late last month had slashed salaries of its senior employees as part of its cost-cutting measures to cope with the slowdown.

Jet Airways' market share in the first quarter of 2009 stood at 25.3 percent, while Kingfisher Airlines was ahead of it with 27.2 percent.

Fare cut unlikely on international routes: Jet Airways

India's leading private carrier Jet Airways, which cut domestic fares by up to 40 percent last week, said it has no plans to slash fares on international routes.

"We don't have any proposal right now to cut fares on our international routes," Jet Airways spokesman A.K. Sivanandan told IANS.

An official of another airline expressed the same view, saying Indian carriers were unlikely to cut international fares as they already offer "competitive fares".

"We already offer competitive fares on our international routes. Even when aviation fuel was at the peak levels, we offered the lowest fares on many international sectors," the official, who did not want to be named, told IANS.

Three Indian operators - Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines - are operating on domestic as well as international routes.

The airlines are, however, looking at offering concessions and other incentive schemes on international flights like the 'free companion travel' announced by Jet Airways.

Besides Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Air India also announced fare cuts on domestic routes following downward revision of jet fuel prices.

While the state-owned Air India slashed fares up to 82 percent in at least 20 sectors, the UB group-owned Kingfisher announced a 21 to 65 percent fare cut on various routes.

However, airlines officials said low-cost carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet were unlikely to reduce fares as their rates are already "lower" and comparable to other carriers now.

Jet's inaugural New York-Delhi flight takes off

Jet Airways' inaugural flight between New York and New Delhi with 150 passengers aboard took off Sunday from JFK airport after a brief religious ceremony at the departure lounge.

This is Jet's third daily service between India and North America.

"The new flight is an exciting opportunity for us as it opens up another part of America's East Coast," Deepak Oberoi, Jet's regional director (East Coast & South America), told DNA.

He added the flight would be convenient for passengers from areas including the eastern part of New York, upstate New York and Connecticut.

Gurvinder Singh, an upstate New York businessman, agreed. "I had booked a seat on the inaugural flight two months ago," he said.

The Brussels-Delhi leg of the inaugural flight Sunday had all 312 seats booked.

Jet had earlier launched flights between Newark (New Jersey) and Mumbai and between Toronto and Chennai.

All three flights have stopovers in Brussels, a hub for Jet, around the same time, making it convenient for passengers to switch flights, depending on their final destination.

The religious ceremony at JFK's departure lounge of Terminal 8 had priests from Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Christian religions saying prayers for the success of the service and welfare of passengers.

Jet Airways flights to and from both New York have Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, offering passengers First Class, Première Class and Economy Class.

The airline claims to offer top class luxury, privacy and comfort in the air, including First Class suites with the world's longest airline beds, private closets, dining tables for two, and 23" flat-screens.

Première (business) class pods offer what are considered the most comfortable Business Class seats in the sky that convert to 73"-long flat beds.

Jet also flies from India to London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok and Kathmandu.

It plans to commence service to more cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Johannesburg.

Indo-Asian News Service