After winging off to the US, Canada, Europe (UK and Brussels), South and South East Asia, Jet Airways is all set to fly to the Middle East from January next year.
Gets nod to fly to Middle Eastern countries from January 1
BANGALORE: After winging off to the US, Canada, Europe (UK and Brussels), South and South East Asia, Jet Airways is all set to fly to the Middle East from January next year.
The civil aviation ministry on Friday granted permission to Jet to start services from India to four Gulf countries - Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain - from January 1.
The airline’s request to fly to Dubai and Abu Dhabi is still under its consideration.
This makes Jet the only private carrier to fly to one of the most profitable global sectors.
Currently, domestic airlines with less than five years of experience are not allowed to operate to overseas destinations.
This norm qualifies only two carriers - Jet Airways and JetLite (formerly Air Sahara and now 100% owned by Jet)
Of the total entitlement for Indian carriers on the Gulf routes of 85481 seats per week, Jet has been given 12% capacity with 11032 seats per week.
Currently, Indian carriers (only the state-owned airlines Air India, Alliance Air and Air India Express) are utilising just 58% of the total entitlements with 49598 seats per week.
This means that Jet would easily be able to garner around 22% share on the Gulf sector if infuses seat capacity to the fullest extent it has been granted.
Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said the airline was prepared to launch flights by January next year with A330s and Boeing 737-800s.
“We have seen the press release of the ministry, we are awaiting official notification but we ready for the launch of flights to Gulf region in the beginning of January,” said Prock-Schauer.
He, however, refrained from commenting on the on ministry holding back its decision on the most lucrative Gulf routes like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“We will wait for its (ministry’s) decision,” he said. Meanwhile, analysts and industry experts see this as positive development for Jet, which has turned its focus on international routes to improve its yields.
The full-service carrier, which had taken severe beating on the market share and profitability fronts last fiscal on account of irrational price war, has said that by 2009, international sectors would contribute 50% of its total revenues.
And opening up of Gulf sector is an important milestone in that direction for it.
Ankur Bhatia, executive director of the leading travel conglomerate Bird Group says Middle East is definitely one of the higher yield sectors.
“Over 40% of the ex-India traffic is to the Gulf, 40% to the South East Asia and the remaining 20% to the US, Europe and others,” said Bhatia.
He said exclusion of Dubai and Abu Dhabi could be a bit of disappointment for Jet as these are the most served West Asian route from Delhi and Mumbai.
“In spite of being the most served route, it can digest more capacity,” said Bhatia.
He said entry of Jet on the Gulf routes could spark off price war in the short term, which could pull down the price by 5-10%. However, he expects the prices to stabilise in the couple of months.
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