Jet takes off on the low-cost, no-frills route

New Delhi, Mumbai: To draw more passengers, Jet Airways is going the low-cost way. By end-June, 110 of its 290 flights will offer no-frills services.
The 110 flights will be offered on Jet’s sub-brand, Konnect, launched on May 8. The on-ground and in-flight service on Konnect will be delivered by Jet Airways staff; however, travellers will have to buy their meals on board.
Jet Airways also owns JetLite low-cost airline, which will operate 109 daily flights. Thus, of the 400 daily flights, about 220 will have only the economy class.
Giving financial analysts, an indication of things to come, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said the global recession had impacted corporate travel as companies were cutting down costs and travel.
The Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Sudheer Raghavan, said that with consumer demand changing rapidly in a dynamic global environment, the Konnect service will give the airline the flexibility and the speed to deploy capacity to meet these changing trends.
The service, which was launched with two Boeing 737s and six ATRs, will have a fleet of seven Boeing and 10 ATR aircraft by the end of the month.
The decision of Jet Airways to operate more flights in the no-frills economy class airlines from among its brands comes on the heels of another full-service airline, Kingfisher, going the same path, In May, Kingfisher Airlines converted more than 20 flights to Kingfisher Red, its low-cost cousin.
17/06/09 Ashwini Phadnis/Shubhra Tandon/Business Line

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Jet Airways Jun 2009