Jet Airways gets nod for flights to Milan

The ministry of civil aviation has approved a proposal by Jet Airways (India) Ltd to fly to Milan in Italy and has also given its permission for the carrier to increase its frequency of flights to short-haul international destinations such as Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo from various Indian cities, said two senior civil aviation ministry officials familiar with the development.
“We had approved the proposal of Jet Airways to fly to Milan in addition to Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo. The carrier may start its operations by next month or so,” said one of the officials. Both ministry officials declined to be identified.
This approval last week will allow Jet Airways to access the largely untapped India-Italy market, which is currently served through indirect connections. Mounting losses had forced Italian government-owned Alitalia, run by Linee Aeree Italiane SpA, to withdraw from the Indian market in March 2008.
Besides Milan, Jet Airways will now also consider flying to other European destinations, said a senior Jet executive, marking the lifting of a freeze India’s largest airline by passengers carried had imposed on long-haul route expansion following the financial crisis of 2008.
Jet Airways launched international flights in 2004 and expanded aggressively on long-haul routes, but imposed a moratorium of new long-haul international flights in November 2008 after a credit crunch and economic slowdown in the wake of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.
As a part of resuming its long-distance route expansion, Jet Airways had applied for permission to fly to other international routes including Mexico and Paris.
21/09/10 P.R. Sanjai/Live Mint

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Categories: Foreign Sep 2010, Jet Airways Sep 2010, New Sep 2010