Jet Airways to Start Daily Non-Stop Flights From Delhi to Milan

Jet Airways will commence daily non-stop flights from New Delhi to Milan from December 5, the airline said.

The service on the India-Italy route will make Milan the 24th international destination on Jet Airways network, it said.

The airline will operate the new service by using Airbus 330-200 aircraft. Configured in two classes, there will be 30 seats in Première (Business Class) and 190 seats in Economy Class.

Shares of the company gained Rs 10.75, or 1.33%, to trade at Rs 818.10. The total volume of shares traded was 94,518 at the BSE (10.31 a.m., Friday).

Airlines Cancel Flights to Kolkata as Trade Unions Strike

A number of airlines to cancel flights to and from Kolkata because of the central trade unions strike to protest rising prices of essential commodities and petroleum products.

Some airlines have canceled flights among others; Kingfisher Airlines has canceled 29 flights, including one international flight. One international flight services Kingfisher which was canceled flight to Bangkok. Jet Airways and JetLite have canceled about 70 flights to Kolkata.

Both the airlines have cancelled their flights to and from Mumbai, New Delhi, Silchar, Bagdogra, Aizwal, Ranchi, Agartala, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Patna, Chennai, Imphal, Vishakhapatnam, Bangalore and Port Blair.

Kingfisher has cancelled their Dhaka flight while Jet their flight to Bangkok.

Jet has preponed their Kolkata-Dhaka flight (9W-274) which would depart Kolkata at 5.30 am, while the Dhaka-Kolkata flight (9W-273) would remain postponed for tomorrow and will operate on Wednesday.

The flight would take-off from Dhaka at 0530 hrs and arrive in Kolkata at 0545 hrs (local time).

Apart from it, Jet has rescheduled their Delhi- Bagdogra-Guwahati-Delhi flight (9W-2285) which would depart Delhi at 11:15 am and arrive Guwahati at 01:45 pm.

Kingfisher has also rescheduled two of its flights, one from Bangalore and other to Hyderabad tomorrow.

The airlines has preponed the departure of its Kolkata-Hyderabad flight (IT 3434) which usually departs the West Bengal capital at 6:50 am would depart at 05:35 am.

Also its Bangalore-Kolkata flight (IT-3419), which originally departs Bangalore at 8.40 pm, will now take-off from there at 4.00 am on Wednesday and arrive Kolkata at 6:15 am.

“Guests are requested to note that there would be no transportation available to and from Kolkata airport while the bandh is in force,” a Kingfisher spokesperson said in a statement.

The airlines have requested the passengers to contact their call centres to know about the status of their flights.

Jet Airways to Expand Domestic Capacity by 10-15% in Current Financial Year

Jet Airways, India’s largest private carrier by market share, will expand domestic capacity by 10-15% in the current financial year, the company’s chairman Naresh Goyal said on the sidelines of its annual general meeting.

This would mean Jet Airways will add five Boeing 737s to its fleet this year in what could be the first sign of recovery for domestic aviation companies reeling under heavy debt burden. During last fiscal, Jet Airways had cut capacity by 25% and leased seven wide body Boeing 777 aircraft to foreign carriers.

Mr Goyal also said that an equity dilution of up to 20% is also being looked at. “We have sought FIPB approval and are waiting for the clearance,” he said.

Mr Goyal, through a wholly-owned entity, Tailwinds, holds 80% of equity in Jet Airways. The company is also looking at fund raising options and a qualified institutional placement to raise $400 million is also on the cards. Mr Goyal did not provide a timeline to any such fund raising by the company.

Commenting on the debt-restructuring package for the aviation industry, currently being discussed by the RBI and government banks, Mr Goyal said that Jet was not looking for any debt restructuring. “It is not debt restructuring what we are looking at. We have requested for certain relaxations in the ECB guidelines. We want cost of borrowing to go down as foreign banks are willing to lend to us,” he said. The RBI is looking at that proposal, he said.

Jet Airways has sought exemptions from the regulator on the quantum and the tenure of borrowing and has also wants the external commercial borrowing or ECB be fully guaranteed by the Indian banks. Jet is looking to raise over Rs 3,450 crore through ECBs. The airliner is also close to achieving its targeted savings of $600 million through cost rationalisation, cutting down of expensive routes and fleet rationalisation.

“We will achieve this target by 2011,” its vice president, commercial strategy, K G Vishwanath said. Though he denied any merger with Jet Airways with its low cost arm JetLite, Mr Goyal said, “With JetLite we are looking at improving service, reliability of the product and sprucing of interiors of the aircraft.” JetLite posted operational profits in the last financial year.

Mr Goyal also formally stated that there is no alliance with its competitor airline Kingfisher, as there was no conclusion of any alliance with the Vijay Mallya promoted airliner. Both the promoters had formally announced that they were working together on cost cutting measures in 2008. “We have just normal airline agreements with Kingfisher,” Mr Goyal said.

In its annual report Jet has stated that it will continue to expand its international operations as international inbound and outbound traffic has seen growth. While analysing risks, the Jet Airways’ report said any increase in the air turbine fuel will adversely impact it as will any major deterioration of the Rupee against the Dollar and Euro as outflow in foreign currency for Jet is higher.

Air India Decided To Resume Flights To U.S.

Air India today decided to resume flights to the US and Jet Airways to North America, three days after complete disruption of West-bound flights from India due to volcanic plumes from Iceland over Europe.

However, the flights for European destinations of all the airlines continue to remain suspended.

Air India will operate its flights from Delhi to New York and New York to Delhi and also Mumbai-New York and New York-Mumbai flights from tonight with a diversion through the polar route, an Air India spokesperson said.

A polar route refers to an aircraft route across the uninhabited polar ice cap region.

Delhi-JFK (New York) flight AI-101 will depart tonight at 0025 hours (IST) and reach and New York at 0825 (local time).

Similarly, flights from New York AI-102 will leave at 17.05 hours (local time) and reach Delhi at 1915 hours (IST).
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Aviation Workers In India Promise Strike Action Over Sackings

Workers at an Indian airline have pledged to take strike action to defend two colleagues who were sacked following their involvement with a newly formed pilots’ union.
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Jet Airways Negotiate With Several Airlines for Leasing Out Aircraft

Naresh Goyal-led private air carrier Jet Airways is negotiating with several airlines, including Oman Air, for exploring possibilities of leasing out its surplus aircraft, a top company official said.
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