Oman Air in talks with India's Jet Airways on leasing aircraft

Muscat: India's Jet Airways is in talks with the Sultanate's national carrier, Oman Air for commercial cooperation leasing of its aircraft.
Speaking to Times of Oman yesterday, Saroj K. Datta, executive director of Jet Airways, who was in town for negotiations with top officials of Oman Air said: "We are in talks with Oman Air for commercial cooperation about leasing of aircraft. We have some surplus aircraft and wanted to know whether Oman Air would be interested in leasing them."
"But it (the lease) is subject to government approval, so I can't talk more on this at this stage. Apart from that, the board of directors of both companies also need to approve this. After that, we both will make an announcement," Datta added.
The announcement is likely to be made in a couple of weeks, Datta said.
Jet Airways has been leasing out aircraft rendered surplus following route rationalisation, cutting down on operations and cost pruning.
"We already have leased two A330s to Gulf AirGulf AirLoading..., and three A777s to Turkish Airlines. We are negotiating with Gulf AirGulf AirLoading... to lease another three to four 777 aircraft," Datta added. Jet Airways leased its aircraft to Gulf AirGulf AirLoading... in December. That deal is on till the end of March.
Stating that the global recession had hit the Indian airlines industry very badly and will continue to impact the industry throughout 2009, Datta said: "The industry is going to make huge losses. It could easily be in excess of two billion dollars for the entire Indian airline industry. There are a lot of difficulties all of us are facing. That is why all of us have cut back on capacity and are planning to reduce costs."
10/01/09 Zawya, United Arab Emirates

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2009, Jet Airways Jan 2009