By Manik Mehta, AJOTIndia’s largest private airline, Jet Airways, has finally, landed on America’s shores after going through a protracted two-year waiting period in getting clearances and overcoming all kinds of procedural delays and hurdles. With its maiden flight to Newark International Airport in New Jersey on August 5, using a modern B777-300ER aircraft, Jet Airways has launched what it likes to describe as “historic air service” to the United States.
The arrival of the “new kid on the block” has aroused the curiosity of other airlines, particularly those having connections with India, the “world’s fastest growing democracy,” as Indian diplomats and politicians like to proclaim. Air-India, the official national carrier of India, as many Indian aviation experts agree, will find Jet Airways a formidable competitor with a strong customer outreach, slick marketing and rapidly expanding network. Air-India recently introduced a non-stop flight from the east coast to Mumbai, offering additional capacity for passenger and cargo transportation. Many analysts say that the increase in both passenger and cargo capacity will put pressure on pricing. Expectations are that both Air-India and Jet Airways may be locked in fierce competition to obtain a larger share of the US market in the years ahead.
Jet Airways has been steadily increasing its share of India’s domestic aviation market since it first started as a fledgling “air taxi operator” in 1992, when India was still clinging to the remnants of a perverted socialism which did not allow private airlines to operate as full-fledged airlines and were required, at that point, to use the moniker “air taxi operators.” Things have, of course, changed since then. Domestic private airlines in India are, today, considered to be important players in India’s aviation sector.
According to the latest available figures, the share of Jet Airways in India’s domestic aviation market has, meanwhile, increased to over 43%, up from less than 27% a few months ago, and this is still greater than any other Indian domestic operator’s market share.
The United States is India’s largest market. Jet Airways stands to benefit not only from the growing passenger traffic from the United States to India but also from air cargo traffic, as air trade between India and the United States continues to expand. Jet Airways operates a daily flight leaving from Mumbai and makes a stopover in Brussels, the airline’s European hub, where the airline has been aggressively building up its operations.
Jet Airways’ management strategic thinking has been to increase its presence in North America where it sees enormous potential for business. To further strengthen its presence in North America, the airline will introduce another daily flight from Delhi to Toronto via Brussels effective September 5. Flights to New York’s JFK International Airport are also being planned and, according to an airline spokesman, will commence late this year or early next year. Another major thrust in the region is expected to come when the airline launches its flight from Delhi to California via Shanghai in 2008.
Jet Airways currently maintains a fleet of 64 aircraft, including four B777-300ER, 48 classic and the next generation B737-400/700/800/900 aircraft, four Airbus A330-200 aircraft, and eight modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average age of 5.1 years, Jet Airways claims that it has one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world. Jet Airways executives have been saying that the airline will increase its fleet in the future as new routes are added. As of August 2007, the airline had already placed orders for eight A330-200, two B737-700, 10 B737-800, 13 B737-300ER and 10 B787-8. In 2006 the airline also applied for membership in the Star Alliance.
Besides Newark and the upcoming service to Toronto, Jet Airways operates flights to Kathmandu (Nepal), Col
