Jet Airways : 9W : JAI :

The Airbus 330 is 30 per cent more cost-efficient compared with the Boeing 777. In the current economic downturn, operating a three-class configuration aircraft is tough, especially the first (class). With its two-class configuration, the Airbus makes much more sense,” said Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways, on the sidelines of the company’s 17th annual general meeting here on Monday.
Company sources told Business Line that while the Boeing 777’s running cost works out to approximately $13,000 an hour; that of the Airbus 330 is $9,000. Incidentally, the Airbus 330 is a 220-seater aircraft while the Boeing 777 has 312 seats.
Jet has 10 Boeing 777s and 12 Airbus 330s in its fleet of 86 aircraft. Of this, it has leased out seven Boeings and only two Airbus. It plans to lease out the remaining three Boeings in the near future.

Mumbai, Oct 4 (PTI) Close on the heels of Air India inviting global expressions of interest to lease out seven aircraft, the airline's private counterpart Jet Airways has initiated discussions with foreign carriers to lease out two of its wide-body airplanes.

"We are in discussions with Oman Air and Etihad for leasing out two of our Boeing 777 aircraft," airline sources told PTI here.

Jet is looking for wet leasing of the planes for at least six months and a decision is likely to be taken very soon, sources added.

When contacted, a Jet Airways spokesperson confirmed that the airline is in talks with some overseas air carriers to lease out the two aircraft but declined to divulge details.

"We are exploring all options but have not yet taken a final decision," the spokesperson said.

A Jet Airways Boeing 777-300, registration VT-JEA performing flight 9W-119 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Mumbai (India) with 295 passengers and 15 crew, diverted to Budapest (Hungary) after a passenger suffered a cardiac arrest. The airplane landed overweight but safely on runway 13L. The passenger was taken to local hospital.

The airplane reached Mumbai with a delay of 5.5 hours as result of the diversion.

Due to the overweight landing the brakes overheated resulting in some visible flames. Jet Airways sent a mechanics from Brussels with spare parts to examine and repair the brakes if necessary. While the mechanics was still enroute on the next available flight SN-2825, the flight crew decided to continue without further brakes checks and departed. Mechanics and spare parts arrived - but there was no VT-JEA anymore.

When it comes to competition in the skies, there is no fiercer contest than who has the best seat.
With only two main aircraft manufacturers in the world, airlines have to find other ways to differentiate themselves and claiming the longest, widest or most luxurious seat is a key battleground.
Virgin Atlantic, the pioneer of several improvements in seat design over the past 25 years, yesterday won the latest round in its fight to protect the exclusivity of its Upper Class seat.
Virgin spent £50 million designing its Upper Class product, which was introduced in 2003 and has been copied by rivals. Upper Class is Virgin’s equivalent of business and first class on other carriers.
The unusual Herringbone design was sold to other airlines by Contour, the Welsh seat manufacturer that built Virgin’s Upper Class product.
Virgin claimed that it owned the patent on the seat design and took Contour to court to stop it making any more copies. Virgin’s argument was initially rejected, but the Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the patent application. An injunction is likely to be filed against Contour to prevent it making any more of the seats.
Virgin is taking legal action against Delta, Air Canada and Jet Airways, which all bought the Herringbone seats from Contour. Cathay Pacific is facing legal action after buying similar seats from another manufacturer.
If Virgin’s legal action is successful, these airlines could be forced to strip their planes of the seats, which would be incredibly expensive as it can take months to refit a single plane.
It is thought that Virgin will press for an out of court settlement and lawyers said that Sir Richard Branson’s airline could be paid tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
Paul Charles, a spokesman for Virgin, said: “It has always been, and will remain, a key strategic objective of Virgin Atlantic to protect its intellectual property rights from misuse.”
The Herringbone design allows Virgin to fit a large number of seats into its Upper Class cabin because little space is wasted. The reclined seat folds down to create a fully flat bed.
Competition for premium passengers has intensified since the start of the recession as many companies have cut their travel budgets while holidaymakers are trading down.

Indian airlines carried 44.5 million passengers in 2009, up 7.9% from the prior year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation reported yesterday.
Fourth-quarter traffic soared 30.5% year-over-year to 12.5 million passengers and December traffic rose 34.8% to 4.5 million.
Jet Airways (17.9%) and JetLite (7.5%) led all companies in full-year market share with a combined 25.4%, followed by Kingfisher Airlines at 23.9% and Air India with 17.5%. IndiGo (13.9%) and Spicejet (12.4%) rounded out the top five. Indian carriers cut capacity during the first half of 2009 but registered year-over-year increases in both RPKs and ASKs in each of the year's last six months.
December RPKs rose nearly 40% over the year-ago month, with average load factor surpassing 80% owing to the peak season. IndiGo posted a 90% load factor for the month, with Jet posting the lowest figure at 78.2%.
India's airlines transported 43.8 million passengers on domestic routes in 2009. Kingfisher led the way with a 23.9% share equal to 10.5 million passengers, followed by Jet at 17.9% and AI at 17.5%.

Jet Airways To Dry Lease 3 Boeing 777-300 ER To Thai Airways

March 25, 2010: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, today announced that as part of its strategic fleet and capacity rationalization initiative, the airline signed a new lease agreement, for three of its B777-300 ER aircraft with Thai Airways. The three new wide-bodied 777-300 ER aircraft will be dry leased to the Thai National carrier for a period of three years with immediate effect. The lease agreement with Thai Airways is in addition to the four other 777-300 ER aircraft currently on dry lease with Turkish Airlines.

According to Mr. Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways, "Jet Airways has worked with a focused approach over the last two years to more closely align the airline's deployed capacity with current demand, streamlining costs in the process. The leasing of three of our wide-body B777-300ER aircraft is among the last steps to fully achieving this objective. With the improvement in the global economic environment leading to a rise in air traffic, Jet Airways is now optimally positioned to return to profitability and sustain stronger growth, both in India and overseas with the introduction of new routes."

Jet Airways recently registered impressive growth, over five consecutive months (October '09 - February '10), consolidating its leadership position in the Indian aviation industry. The average international seat factor during this period exceeded 80%, while the average domestic seat factor was an impressive 74% - reflecting continued high demand for the airline’s award-winning world-class product and service.
JetLite, Jet Airways' all-economy subsidiary too has been showing significant signs of a turnaround registering an average of over 18% growth in passenger traffic on a seat factor in excess of 78% for the past four months.

Effective April 14, 2010, the airline will launch its planned daily non-stop flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg in South Africa, and a daily flight on the Thiruvananthapuram-Dammam sector, effective March 28, 2010. Domestically, Jet Airways' Konnect service will introduce daily services on the New Delhi-Dehradun and the Kochi-Bengaluru-Ahmedabad sectors, as also five-days-a-week service on the Hyderabad-Chennai-Port Blair sectors, effective March 28, 2010.

Jet Airways offers guests seamless connections between several destinations in India and 21 destinations across North America, Europe, Asia and the Gulf, primarily via its major hubs in Mumbai and Delhi.

About Jet Airways
Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 89 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 53 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft and 14 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 4.66 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world.

Flights to 61 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Sharjah and Riyadh.
Jet Airways (including its all-economy, no-frills Jet Airways Konnect service) operates over 380 flights daily.

About Jet Airways Konnect
Jet Airways Konnect is Jet Airways’ all-economy service on key domestic routes, designed to meet the needs of the low-fare segment with value-for-money fares.

Jet Airways Konnect links five major metros- Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata - with several destinations across India, operating over 195 flights daily.

About JetLite
JetLite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways India Ltd. and was acquired by Jet Airways in April 2007. Positioned as an all-economy, no-frills airline, JetLite operates a fleet of 23 aircraft, which includes 16 Boeing 737 series and 7 Canadian Regional Jets 200 Series. The airline flies to 28 domestic destinations and 2 international destinations (Kathmandu and Colombo), operating over 110 flights a day, on average.

Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect, its all-economy, no-frills service, and JetLite have a combined fleet strength of 112 aircraft and operate over 490 flights daily.

Jet to lease five A330s as international traffic rises

New Delhi: Jet Airways has decided to lease five additional A330 jets from the US-based Intrepid Aviation Group LLC to serve the rising demand for international travel. The long-haul jets would be taken on long-term operating lease and would be deployed on European and South East Asian routes.
“Jet has asked government permission to import five more A330s which would be inducted into the fleet between fourth quarter of 2011 and 2014,” official sources told FE. The airline has already negotiated the terms and conditions for leasing additional jets with the American lessor.
The Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways currently has 12 A330s which serve destinations in the Europe, North America and Asean countries. The airline is on fleet and network expansion mode in both domestic and international markets after nearly two years of slowdown. It is in the process of identifying routes having higher chances of making profit in 6-8 months.
“Based on current market trends and capacity requirements on international routes over the next five years, the airline finds that there is need for the company to induct 10 additional A330s—five A330-200s and five A330-300s,” Jet Airways executive director Saroj Datta is understood to have written to the civil aviation ministry.
The airline had earlier obtained the regulatory approval to take five A330s between 2009 and 2012 but deferred the plan due to weak demand and mounting losses as a result of recession.
An executive of Jet said that additional Airbus aircraft is likely to be taken from an affiliate of Intrepid Aviation for 10-year operating lease. The civil aviation ministry, the nodal government department for airline sector, is expected to consider the airline's fresh proposal in its upcoming meeting of Aircraft Acquisition Committee (AAC).

Air India, Jet Airways to Lease 35 Airbus Planes

Air India and Jet Airways India Ltd. have agreed to lease 35 planes of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. NV's Airbus from leasing companies.
Flag carrier Air India has decided to lease 10 A330 planes and 15 A320s, Airbus said in a statement late Monday. Jet Airways, India's biggest carrier by market share, will lease 10 A330s.
Airbus said the 25 planes that Air India plans to take on lease have a list acquisition price of $3.1 billion, while the 10 planes chosen by Jet Airways have a list acquisition price of $1.9 billion.
A spokesman for Airbus said the deals are, however, likely to be done directly with the leasing companies and are unlikely to give new business to Airbus.
"The carriers will select an engine supplier and a leasing company in the near future," Airbus said.
Indian carriers have started to take new planes on lease or order new aircraft as demand for air travel rebounds from the global economic slowdown of 2008 and early 2009. Budget carrier SpiceJet Ltd. last month ordered 30 turboprop aircraft from Canada's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Inc. for $900 million, adding to a $2.7 billion order for 30 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Co.'s 737-800 planes placed in July. Another budget airline IndiGo has received government approval to buy 150 Airbus planes.
Ragini Chopra, a spokeswoman for Mumbai-based Jet, said the airline is planning to take the 10 A330s on lease to expand its international operations.
"We are in talks with various leasing companies for the aircraft," she said, but declined to elaborate.
The first two A330s will be leased between January and June 2011, while the rest will be leased in 2012 for use on long-haul routes, said another Jet Airways executive, who declined to be named.
"We are finalising our international expansion plans," the executive said. "We think demand is rising and this is the right time to deploy additional capacity."
Jet has already leased four ATR turboprop planes from the aircraft leasing arm of U.K.-based [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] PLC. Two more ATRs will join the fleet next month.

Jet Airways Plans Fleet Expansion

India’s leading private airline Jet Airways said it will purchase aircraft from Boeing and Airbus as part of its fleet expansion program.
Yohan Paul, a senior official at Jet Airways, told Aviation Week the company has approved acquiring two additional Boeing 777–300ER aircraft. The delivery would take place between February and April 2013. “We are also planning to induct four A330-family aircraft over the next two years,” Paul said.
In addition, Jet Airways has entered into a purchase agreement with Boeing to acquire 30 737-800s to be delivered by 2015 and 10 Boeing 787-8s to be delivered by 2014. “These are, however, subject to requisite regulatory approvals and firm dates from the manufacturer,” Paul said.
Currently, Jet Airways operates a fleet of 97 aircraft, which includes 10 777-300ERs, 12 A330-200s, 55 next- generation Boeing 737-700/800/900s and 20 modern ATR 72-500 turboprops.
The airline, which flies to 71 destinations in India and abroad, has plans to increase services on its existing domestic routes, as well as to launch a nonstop flight to the U.S.; it currently operates a single daily connection to New York and New Jersey via Brussels—its hub in Europe.
Jet Airways has a code-share agreement with American Airlines, which operates a nonstop daily flight between Chicago and New Delhi. It entered into a similar agreement with United Airlines last year, which operates flights from London to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington.
The airline faces tough competition from Air India, which operates nonstop daily flights to New York and Chicago.

BOMBAY - L'indien Jet Airways va commander 10 Airbus A330

BOMBAY - La plus grande compagnie aérienne privée d'Inde Jet Airways va commander à [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] dix appareils A330, a indiqué son président Naresh Goyal cité jeudi dans le quotidien The Economic Times.
"Nous achetons 10 A330 à Airbus", a simplement déclaré M. Goyal, cité dans le quotidien financier. La commande devrait être passée au salon du Bourget en France, grand-messe biennale de l'aéronautique qui se tient du 20 au 26 juin à l'aéroport du même nom.
Cette commande serait de l'ordre de 2,5 milliards de dollars, estime The Economic Times.
Selon le quotidien, qui cite deux sources proche du dossier, la compagnie indienne à bas coûts GoAir envisage de son côté de commander au moins 50 A320 pour 4 milliards de dollars, des appareils destinés à leur flotte domestique pour une mise en service l'an prochain.
Les deux commandes sont toujours en négociation mais les discussions sont arrivées à un stade final, selon des sources sous couvert d'anonymat au sein d'Airbus, citées par The Economic Times.
Aucune réaction n'était disponible dans l'immédiat auprès de GoAir.
Selon The Economic Times, une autre compagnie privée à bas coûts, IndiGo pourrait aussi poursuivre le processus de discussion avec Airbus pour 180 appareils A320 d'un montant estimé à 15 milliards de dollars, après avoir signé un protocole d'accord l'an dernier.
Quant à la compagnie publique Air India, elle envisage de prendre 10 A330 et 16 A320 en location, ajoute le quotidien.
En Inde, le secteur de l'aviation a décollé ces dernières années grâce à l'émergence d'une solide classe moyenne, mais la hausse du prix du pétrole et un tassement de la croissance économique ont récemment affecté les compagnies privées.

WASHINGTON, Jan 12, 2012 (AFP)
India's Jet Airways has ordered 17 of Boeing's midrange 737 aircraft, Boeing revealed on Thursday.
© 2012 AFP