India’s former private carrier Jet Airways is mainly remembered for using the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft for its international routes. However, for a brief period of time, the airline relied solely on three Airbus A340-300 aircraft for long-distance international flying. So, what happened to Jet’s only quadjet fleet? Let’s find out.
After flying domestically for over a decade, Jet Airways started international operations with flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The fairly short distance to the island nation just south of India meant that Jet could deploy the smaller Boeing 737 aircraft on the route. However, once it received permission to fly to London, it needed a bigger plane for the inter-continental flight.
By early 2005, news of Jet Airways engaging in negotiations with South African Airways to lease three of its A340 airplanes had started floating around. The three A340-300 aircraft were delivered new to South African, and it was not planning to use them any time soon. Almost immediately after they were delivered to SAA, the quadjets were leased to Jet Airways in 2005.
As per ch-aviation, the three A340s made a very quick transition from South African Airways to Jet Airways:
ZS-SXD joined SAA on 28th February, 2005; became VT-JWA for Jet Airways on 23rd May, 2005
ZS-SXE joined SAA on 4th March, 2005; became VT-JWB for Jet Airways on 31st May, 2005
ZS-SXF joined SAA on 18th March, 2005; became VT-JWC for Jet Airways on 6th June, 2005
Jet Airways immediately deployed the quadjets to London (LHR) and even considered expanding to other secondary destinations in the UK such as Manchester and Birmingham. However, the airline had more ambitious plans for international expansion and was not content with having just the A340s.
In 2005, the carrier placed two orders for widebody aircraft – one with Airbus for 10 A330-200s with the option of 10 more; the second was with Boeing for 10 777-300ERs.
06/10/21 Gaurav Joshi/Simple Flying
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