The aircraft upgrade follows a similar move earlier in 2007, when the carrier replaced A340s with B777s on its double-daily London-Mumbai services. Including its 3 x weekly flights to Amritsar and Ahmedabad, Jet Airways now operates a total of 27 widebody flights per week from London to India, 21 of them using B777 aircraft with around 20 tons' capacity.
At the same time, Jet Airways has extended its route network with the introduction of double-daily services to Kathmandu, daily A330s to Singapore, and 4 x weekly services to Dhaka, Bangladesh. These latest new services add to the airline's existing 340 flights per day to more than 50 destinations, while there are plans to further extend its network to North America, Europe, Africa and Asia as it takes delivery of more of the B777 aircraft already on order.
Jet Airways' Irish GSSA, IAM, welcomes the new services and increased capacity, says its MD Ian McCool: 'Jet Airways has made a major impact on the Indian subcontinent market since the launch of its first international services just three years ago. The quality of its services has become the standard by which other carriers are measured.
'Its young fleet contributes to its already excellent service reliability, while the growth of its wide-body network eliminates potential bottle-necks, and gives us a solid product to offer to the discriminating Irish market.'
IAM uses closely monitored express road feeders operated by its sister company ITC, to collect cargo from the entire Irish market, and deliver nightly to Jet Airways' Heathrow gateway. The feeder services operate to a strict schedule, full tracking information is made available to customers, and performance statistics are published.
Despite its recent entry, Jet Airways has already carved a major slice of the UK market. Its market share typically hovers around 50%, and cargo load factors are well above those of other carriers on the route. The Jet Airways fleet of over 60 aircraft has an average age of less than five years.
