Jet Airways

Jet Airways is an airline based in India serving domestic and international routes. The airline operates over 300 flights to 43 destinations across the country, with the majority of flights operated from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. It currently controls about 40% of India's aviation market. ^*

Background

Jet Airways was established on 5 May 1993 with a fleet of 4 Boeing 737-300 aircraft, with 24 daily flights serving 12 destinations.

The airline now operates 53 aircraft and is a public company, with some 20% of its shares traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Operations

Its 45 destinations include most of the big cities in India. International destinations include Kathmandu, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and London's Heathrow Airport. Jet Airways was the first private airline of India to fly to international destinations.

Jet Airways has international services to Katmandu, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, operating from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

Jet Airways and Air Sahara are the only private airlines which survived the Indian business downturn of the 1990s. On January 19 2006 Jet Airways announced that it would buy Air Sahara; this will be the biggest takeover in India's aviation history. The resulting airline would have been the country's largest ^*, but the deal fell through in June 2006.

Jet Airways had planned to begin daily operations from the north Indian city of Amritsar to London Heathrow, starting in July 2006. However, this route was to use Air Sahara's Boeing 767, and as of June 2006 it is not clear whether it will begin as planned.

Controversy

Jet Airways was expected to begin service to Newark via Brussels in June 2005 but a problem arose in March 2005, when the airline submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Nancy Heckerman, CEO of a U.S. company called Jet Airways Inc. based in Bethesda, Maryland, opposed the application in letters to the Transportation Department alleging trademark infringement. Though the litigation is still unresolved, the Department of Transportation concluded it was not a reason to prevent Jet flying to the U.S.

A second and more serious reason why Jet Airways is not being permitted to fly USA is that its ownership structure is not straightforward. The Chairman's substantial stake is held through an Isle-of-Man company, Tradewinds, whose sources of finance are unclear. While the Indian government officials have been satisfied that these arrangements do not compromise Tradewinds' "fit and proper" status for Indian airline ownership, they are a potential problem for the American authorities.

Rumours have circulated in the past that Tradewinds might be a front for foreign airlines, or possibly even India's most wanted criminal, Dawood Ibrahim. Since Dawood's name is on various Interpol and other blacklists, the US government "review" of Jet's application to fly to the USA is unlikely to conclude any time soon.

Industry Data

Following approval to begin long-haul operations to London, Jet Airways sub-leased 3 Airbus A340-300E from South African Airways.

Jet Airways has an order for 10 Airbus A330-200 aircraft (with options on a further 10 aircraft) as well as an order for 10 Boeing 777-300ER. Deliveries are due to begin early in 2007, although the airline will become the first Indian A330 operator in May 2006, with the delivery of an aircraft on lease from International Lease Finance Corporation.

The Jet Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of March 2006):

Total - 53 aircraft

The average age of Jet Airways fleet is 5.2 years in April 2006.

Jet Airways has commercial agreements with the following airlines:

Jet Airways is also a potential future member of the oneworld alliance .

Merger With Air Sahara

On January 19, 2006 Jet Airways announced that it was to buy Air Sahara for $500 million in an all-cash deal. Everything, including Sahara's assets and infrastructure, would belong to Jet Airways. This deal would have been the biggest in India's aviation history and the resulting airline the country's largest, had it gone through.

Market reaction to the deal was mixed, with many analysts suggesting that Jet Airways was paying too much for Air Sahara. The deadline for the deal to be completed was June 21, 2006, but in the days before this, the chances of the takeover being completed began to look shakier. Jet Airways claimed that a final sticking point was the government's delay in approving Jet chairman Naresh Goyal's appointment to the Air Sahara board. Air Sahara countered that Jet Airways had engineered this impasse by delaying the request for such approval, as a way of extricating themselves from a deal they now regretted. Jet was said to be willing to go ahead with the deal only if the originally agreed price was lowered by 20-25% on the basis of Air Sahara's mounting debts, an option which was firmly rejected by Air Sahara. Finally both sides confirmed that the deal was off.

Following the failure of the deals, the companies have now filed lawsuits seeking damages from each other.

External links

Jet Airways website
Jet Airways Fleet Age
Jet Airways denies terror links news report on BBC news.
A synopsis on Indian Aviation Business news report on Bloomberg
News timeline for Jet Airways

Airlines of India | Worldperks

Jet Airways | Jet Airways