Jet leases five aircraft to foreign carriers

Mumbai: Faced with slowing passenger growth, instability in its international network and dwindling revenues, India's largest private carrier Jet Airways has leased two A330s to Gulf-based carrier, Gulf Air and three B-777 to Turkey's national carrier, Turkish Airlines. In an announcement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the carrier stated that these aircraft were rendered surplus consequent to the route re-structuring and cost saving programme undertaken by the airline to counter the global economic slowdown.
However, an executive at the airline told FE, “Apart from leasing five aircraft, there are high level discussions going on with other international carriers for leasing out at least five more aircraft. The move comes after the airline's pilots, over 700 in number, refused to accept a 10% salary cut. The airline has posted losses of Rs 384.5 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal and is desperate to post better financials in the ensuing quarter.
Dinesh Keskar, Boeing's vice-president, (sales) told FE that the aircraft manufacturer has orders of 3,700 aircraft including that of Turkish Airlines but manufacturing has not begun since there was a workers stir at their facility recently. To conclude, Turkish Airlines has aggressive plans to spread its wings in Europe globally and is looking at all options to lease aircraft until it acquires them from the manufacturers. However, Jet's CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer and its executive director, Saroj Datta did not respond to calls to confirm the latest development.
09/12/08 Financial Express

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Categories: Foreign Dec 2008, Jet Airways Dec 2008