Jet Airways to slash fleet size by fifth

New Delhi: Jet Airways is planning to cut its fleet by nearly a fifth, as the Naresh Goyal-controlled company looks to further slash costs amid the economic downturn that has sharply reduced demand for air travel.
India’s second-largest airline by market share, after Kingfisher Airlines, currently has 87 aircraft operating on domestic and international sectors. It is planning to lease out around 15 from this fleet, said a company official familiar with the matter.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the planes being leased out were from its fleet of Boeing 737s, and the company plans to ultimately lower the size of its fleet flying purely on domestic routes to around 40.
Jet denied it was looking to lease out 15 Boeing 737s, but said it was evaluating “tactical” adjustments to its capacity, ahead of an “upcoming lean season” that would reduce its fleet by a limited number of aircraft.
“The information regarding 15 aircraft to be leased is incorrect. No decision has, however, been taken on the number of aircraft to be reduced,” a company spokeswoman said.
Jet Airways cut its capacity by around 18-20% last winter. The airline is in the process of centralising its operations in Mumbai, and is downsizing or shutting offices in metros to reduce cost. It has put all its expansion plans on hold.
Any move to downsize its fleet further would be on top of its earlier decision to lease out nine wide-bodied aircraft to Gulf Air, Turkish Airlines and Oman Air. The airline is saddled with losses running into hundreds of crores of rupees, and has been considering ways to raise capital from the market while taking the knife to costs.
21/04/09 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Jet Airways Apr 2009