Jet, Sahara headed for settlement

Mumbai: Jet Airways (India) Ltd is close to reaching an agreement with Sahara India Commercial Corp. Ltd, or SICCL, based on which it can pay around Rs300 crore to the latter to end a messy legal battle that has its origins in the April 2007 purchase of Sahara Airline Ltd by Jet Airways, the country’s second largest domestic airline by passenger traffic.
This comes ahead of an important Bombay high court hearing on 2 July. The court told the warring parties on 22 June to settle their dispute, or else it would pass an order.
Jet Airways is also working on a proposal to make some advance payments instead of instalments and is willing to pay some interest to avoid litigation, according to two executives with the carrier.
“Executives from Jet Airways and Sahara India are in discussions to reach an out-of-court settlement. Though the terms and agreements are not finalized, a consensus will be arrived (at) in (the) next 30 days,” said one of the executives. Neither of them agreed to be identified.
“The discussions are progressing towards a settlement, but nothing concrete has happened,” said a senior Sahara India executive, also on condition of anonymity.
The final round of the meetings for the settlement, led by the top brass of both Jet Airways and Sahara India, was scheduled for Monday.
30/06/09 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Optiontown talking to Air India, Jet for ticket upgrade service

New Delhi: After having signed up Kingfisher Airlines, travel services provider Optiontown is now talking to Jet Airways and Air India to offer their passengers the choice to upgrade from economy to first class at a fraction of the normal cost.
Optiontown, which has developed proprietary software for the service 'upgrade travel option (UTo)', said the service can help save up to 75 per cent on the full upgrade fare.
"A passenger can log onto our website after buying a ticket and, depending upon availability, upgrade to a higher class by paying a nominal fee," Optiontown Chief Executive Officer Sachin Goel said.
He said that the cost of moving to a higher class through the company will be about Rs 2,500-3,000 for domestic travel and Rs 15,000-20,000 for foreign destinations, against almost twice these rates in the normal course.
28/06/09 PTI/Economic Times

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IAF doctor faced problems at home, work

Bangalore: Was it the harassment by senior officials that forced him to commit the blunder of making the hoax bomb call? Conforming to this theory, the police say that Dr Akshay, an officer of the rank of a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force who made the call to the pilot of the aircraft and ended in the police net, facing many problems, both at work and home.
Akshay was already facing a dowry harassment case filed by his wife in Mumbai and he was in a hurry to go to Mumbai to attend a hearing in Mumbai’s local court on Friday. But, he was allegedly not sanctioned leave on Thursday by his higher- ups. So, after finishing his duty in city, he had to rush to the International Airport, to ensure his presence in Mumbai.
But, to his bad luck, he was late to board the aircraft. After failing every attempt, he tried the last attempt by making a hoax call, said Basavaraja Malagatti, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East). If his senior officers had sanctioned the leave on Thursday itself, he could have boarded the flight leisurely. But, he was said to have been purposefully assigned to conduct a surgery in the Commando Hospital on Thursday, sources said.
Akshay had booked a ticket to fly to Mumbai in the Jet Airways flight on Thursday. He reached the airport a little late and almost all 216 passengers had already boarded the flight.
27/06/09 ExpressBuzz

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IAF Doctor makes hoax bomb call, lands in jail

Bangalore: Dr Akshay, a doctor with the IAF, Bangalore, and a native of Mumbai, had booked a ticket to Mumbai in a Jet Airways flight on Thursday. When he reached Bangalore International Airport (BIA), it was a little too late as all the passengers had already boarded the aircraft. As Akshay desperately wanted to board the flight, he decided to delay the flight by creating panic. He collected the phone number of the head pilot of the flight from BIAL officials by using his IAF trump card.
Then he called the pilot from a coin booth and told him that a bomb had been planted in the aircraft and it was likely to explode at any moment.
The pilot immediately alerted the CISF officers and Airports Authority about the call and the plane was grounded. Passengers were asked to alight from the plane and a bomb disposal and dog squad started searching for the bomb.
In the meantime, the city police traced the call to BIA itself and succeeded in nabbing the accused. The flight finally took-off to Mumbai three hours late. The IAF doctor, who wanted to board the flight, was in the police custody.
26/06/09 ExpressBuzz

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Govt replaces speed sensors in all A330s

New Delhi: The government has got speed sensors of all Airbus A330s in service with Indian carriers replaced.
Though investigations are still on, faulty speed sensors are believed to have been one of the reasons for the May 31 crash of Air France’s A330 over mid-Atlantic.
Air France pilots are learnt to have reported problems with speed sensors like varying speed readings. Following the crash, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had called a meeting of Indian carriers flying the A330 — Jet, Kingfisher and Air India — along with Airbus representatives to assess the situation.
Accurate pitot tube readings are vital to maintain the right speed.
26/06/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Jet airways Konnect and Jetlite introduce special ‘Monsoon Magic’ Fares

Mumbai: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, Jet Airways Konnect and Jet Airway’s all economy subsidiary JetLite, have introduced special ‘Monsoon Magic’ fares, inclusive of fuel surcharges and congestion fees, on select domestic routes, for sale effective June 26, 2009 to July 2, 2009, and travel effective July 15, 2009 to September 15, 2009.
On domestic routes under 750 kms, such as Mumbai-Ahmedabad/Hyderabad, Chennai-Bengaluru etc., Jet Airways will offer travelers a fare of INR 2000, while JetLite and Jet Airways Konnect will both offer a fare of INR 1750.
On routes between 750-1000 kms, such as Mumbai-Bangalore/Delhi-Ahmedabad etc, Jet Airways will offer travelers a fare of INR 2250. JetLite will offer INR 2,000 fares in sectors like Delhi-Ahmedabad/Mumbai-Calicut and Jet Airways Konnect will offer these fares in sectors like Mumbai - Jaipur / Mumbai - Bangalore both offer a fare of INR 2000.
On routes between 1000-1400 kms, such as Mumbai-Kochi/Delhi etc., Jet Airways will offer travellers a fare of INR 2500. For sectors like Mumbai-Delhi /Coimbatore/ Delhi-Hyderabad JetLite will offer a fare of INR 2250 and Jet Airways Konnect will offer a fare of INR 2250 for sectors like Mumbai-Delhi/Kochi etc.
On routes above 1400 kms, such as Kolkata-Mumbai/ Chennai-Delhi etc., Jet Airways will offer a fare of INR 2750, while JetLite will offer a fare of INR 2500. Jet Airways Konnect will offer a fare of INR 2500 for sectors like Kolkata-Bangalore, Chennai - Delhi & Bangalore - Delhi.
All fares listed below are non-refundable and inclusive of fuel surcharge and congestion fee components, but exclusive of PSF, airport taxes and other government taxes.
26/06/09 PRESS RELEASE/Jet Airways

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Jet likely to join One World Alliance

New Delhi: Jet Airways is likely to join the One World Alliance, sources told NDTV, adding that Jet officials are meeting the alliance representatives in London.
One World is an alliance of 10 biggest airlines. In the fourth quarter of FY09, Jet’s earned over half of its operating revenue from its international business.
Membership of the alliance will give Jet access to 700 destinations across 140 countries and 500 airports with Jet passengers enjoying common baggage handling and mileage points.
This will help improve load factor and revenue for Jet Airways. Ankur Bhatia, ED of Bird Group, said, “If Jet gets to join the alliance it will be a big advantage for the airline as it will give the captive passenger base of some of the biggest airlines like British Airways and American Airline to Jet Airways.”
Earlier, Jet had resisted becoming a member of any alliance as yield per seat goes down with alliance partners since passengers come with discounted tickets. Even now, Jet Airways denied it is joining the alliance and its spokesperson said to NDTV, "We believe in working on a bilateral basis and are not joining any alliance now."
Meanwhile, Jet's move is essentially indicative of the airline's increasing focus on the international market. After all 56 per cent of its operating revenues came from international operations for Q4.Besides, it is targeted toward consolidation and also in achieving the tag of a network carrier.
25/06/09 Manisha Singhal/NDTV.com

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Jet, Sahara to settle the case out of court

The Bombay High Court has postponed the decision on the dispute between Jet Airways and Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd. to July 2. However it has been revealed that both companies are looking at an out-of-court settlement.
The dispute between both companies came about when Sahara filed a case against Jet Airways, saying that the airlines has made a default in a payment towards the acquisition of Air Sahara. The company said that according to the deal, Jet was supposed to have made a payment of Rs2,000 crore to Sahara, but instead paid only the renegotiated amount of Rs1450 crore.Moreover, with the Income Tax department being dragged into the picture, this case has got uglier.
Jet replied to this by saying that it had made a payment of Rs100 crores (as part of the first installment) to Sahara after deducting Rs37.50 crores in the form of income tax dues. Following that, Jet again made a further deduction of Rs50 crore as the Income-Tax Department raised the demand for income tax on Sahara Airlines.
26/06/09 merinews

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Jet flies into Rs400 crore tax trouble

Mumbai: The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence or DGCEI, the agency responsible for monitoring evasion of excise and service tax, has issued a show-cause notice to Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the country’s second largest private carrier, relating to a potential service tax liability of at least Rs400 crore, according to two agency officials familiar with the development.
The service tax liability pertains to the import of services by Jet over the past five years.
The two officials asked not to be named because they are not the official spokespersons for DGCEI.
A show-cause notice is not an indictment, and only requires a company—Jet Airways, in this case—to explain its position.
In an email statement, a Jet Airways spokesperson said: “Jet Airways shall respond to the authorities concerned after examining the legal position.” She did not divulge further details.
Mint has reviewed a copy of the show-cause notice.
According to the DGCEI officials, the show-cause notice, issued in April, covers tax liability of 23 services that were imported. The officials declined to disclose the nature of services availed of by the carrier.
Typically, a company is given a month to respond to such notices but it can always ask for an extension. Jet Airways is yet to respond to the notice.
Jet Airways has been served the notice under the so-called reverse charge mechanism. Under this, it is the recipient of services, and not the provider, that needs to pay tax.
The reverse charge mechanism, which was introduced in 2002, stipulates that in case a non-resident Indian who does not have a business establishment in India offers such a service, the recipient of such services will have to pay the tax.
Subsequently, this rule was expanded and the concept of import of services was introduced to cover services provided to an India-based entity by an entity based outside the country.
In 2006, the government defined what it meant by the import of a service and started treating the recipient of such service as a deemed service provider, liable to pay tax.
24/06/09 Khushboo Narayan and P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Jet Airways Defers Delivery Of Boeing Planes

New Delhi: Jet Airways (India) Ltd. said it has deferred delivery of nine Boeing Co. planes for its low-fare unit, JetLite, planned for this financial year due to the current slowdown in air travel.
The company has also decided to repay loans worth $150 million to several banks in the year that began April 1, a senior executive at India's second-largest carrier by market share told Dow Jones Newswires late Monday.
"This deferment (of aircraft deliveries) is part of our plan of not expanding capacity this year," the executive, who declined to be named, said.
"We are only taking delivery of one aircraft this August. The rest of the deliveries will now be from financial year 2010-2011 onward," the executive said.
Indian carriers are deferring delivery of new planes as the slowing global economy shrinks demand for air travel.
Local carriers likely posted a combined loss of up to $1.4 billion in the financial year ended March 31, the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy, said in May.
Jet Airways has already deferred deliveries of eight long-haul Airbus and Boeing planes - five Airbus 330s and three Boeing 777s - to the next financial year, as it has halted plans for further international expansion.
Its rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. has deferred taking delivery of 32 of 48 Airbus A320 planes that were due to arrive in late 2008 and in 2009. And Air India, the nation's flag carrier, said earlier this month it will sell 11 of its Airbus A320 planes and return an equal number to lessors.
23/06/09 Anirban Chowdhury/The Wall Street Journal

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Dead pilot's family alleges foul play

New Delhi: A day after the mysterious death of a 22-year-old pilot, his family today alleged foul play in his death.
Kunal Batra, a pilot with Jet Airways, was found dead in a swimming pool of the farmhouse of a consul of Togo in Kapashera in southwest Delhi. He had gone to attend the 21st birthday party of the son of Honorary Consul of Togo.
Kunal's father Rakesh Batra said he had left from home on Saturday around 10 pm and next day morning they got a call from police that he is dead. He claimed that policemen told them that he drowned.
"We would like to ask them that how can a 6.2 feet tall youth drown in a five feet high pool and that too no one coming to know about it," he said.
"We were told that someone who attended the party dropped him at the trauma centre. None of his friends or persons at the party have said anything to us or contacted us once," he said.
A senior police official said the post-mortem report suggested that Kunal died of drowning.
22/06/09 PTI/Daily News & Analysis

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Pilot’s case against Jet postponed

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday postponed the hearing in the case filed by captain RPS Panag — one among the many Jet Airways pilots who recently resigned — challenging the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India’s civil aviation requirement (CAR) norm stipulating a six-month notice period.
“There was no judgement today. The next hearing will be on July 1,” said Panag.
The pilot had filed a petition on June 10 against the Union of India, DGCA and Jet Airways seeking interim relief in the form of a No Objection Certificate from Jet to join a new job with another airline.
About 20 Jet Airways' pilots had resigned in April to join Qatar Airways. The confusion over their relieving letter prevailed after the DGCA issued letters to some pilots and Jet Airways saying that the six-month notice period rule couldn’t be enforced if the terms of the employment have been altered or amended.
The pilots allege that the airline has refused to consider the letter and is forcing them to serve the notice period.
22/06/09 Parul Chhaparia/mydigitalfc.com

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HC defers ruling on Jet-Sahara case till July 2

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday asked Jet Airways and Sahara India Commercial Corporation Ltd (SICCL) to settle their dispute over the takeover of Sahara Airlines by July 2 or else it would pass an order.
Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud deferred the ruling after both the parties informed the court that they were too eager to settle the dispute.
Jet Airways had sought time till July 9, but the court asked both sides to settle before July 2 or else it would pass an order.
The court had last month directed both Jet and Sahara to sit across the table and try for an amicable settlement to the dispute.
This is not for the first time the court has suggested both sitting down and settling their dispute.
Earlier, both tried but could not find out a solution to their dispute.
22/06/09 Business Line

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Jet pilot found dead in African envoy's farmhouse

New Delhi: A 23-year-old Jet Airways pilot was found dead in a swimming pool in the Kapashera area of Southwest Delhi on Sunday.
Kunal Batra, a pilot with Jet Airways was at a farmhouse party at the house of the honorary consul of Togo, according to reports.
His body was found in the water at around 0400 hrs IST. The post mortem report says death was due to drowning.
Police are investigating several possibilities, but Kunal's parents say he didn't know how to swim and that it was an unfortunate accident.
22/06/09 CNN-IBN

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Snag delays Jet flight to Mumbai by 5 hrs

Chandigarh: A reported technical snag grounded a Mumbai-bound Jet Airways flight for over five hours at the city airport on Saturday afternoon. The delay occurred after a technical snag developed in the avionics of the aircraft, forcing 145 passengers to alter or cancel travel plans.
Scheduled to take off at 12.55pm, the flight finally left the airport around 6.30pm. Though the exact cause of the holdup could not be known, sources said the problem was detected within minutes after the pilot turned on engines at bay. After noticing a problem while communicating with the air traffic controller, the pilot informed airport authorities. At the same time, the staff on board told the passengers about the technical glitch. Sources added the passengers were asked to alight from the plane around 3.00pm. As many as 21 fliers are learned to have opted for alternative arrangements after seeking a ticket refund, the sources said.
“It was a snag in the communication and transmission system. Avoiding any risk, the pilot chose to not to take off. We informed the head office and a team of engineers was rushed to Chandigarh from Mumbai,” an official of Jet Airways at Chandigarh airport told TOI.
21/06/09 Times of India

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Jet Airways To Defer Delivery Of Boeing,Airbus Planes

Indian leading air compny Jet Airways with its international expansion plans grounded by the global economic slump - has decided it won't take delivery of eight aircraft.
"We will not take delivery of five Airbus 330s and three Boeing 777s this financial year (through March 2010)," Saroj Datta, executive director at India's second-largest domestic carrier by market share, told.The eight Boeing Co. (BA) and Airbus planes were scheduled to be deployed on Jet's international routes.
Jet's move was preceded by similar decisions by others among India's airline industry, which lost an estimated $2 billion in the year ended March 31, 2009.
Jet rival Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. has deferred taking delivery of 32 of 48 Airbus A320 planes that were due to arrive in late 2008 and in 2009.
18/06/09 Online Indian News

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Jet pilots’ Qatar take off delayed by months

Captain RPS Panag —one among the 20 Jet Airways pilots who had recently put in their papers to join Qatar Airways — has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) of India’s civil aviation requirement (CAR) norm stipulating six-month notice period.
The petition filed on June 10 is against the union of India, DGCA and Jet Airways. The next hearing of the case is on June 22.
The move comes after Jet Airways, despite a DGCA directive, refused to give no-objection-certificates (NOCs) to these pilots before serving the six-month notice period.
The petitioner is now seeking interim relief in terms of a NOC from Jet to join the new airline. When contacted by Financial Chronicle, Captain RPS Panag said, “I am not willing to speak on the petition filed in Delhi High Court.”
An aggrieved pilot said, “We have approached the vacation bench as the court is closed for summer holidays. The first hearing of the case was on 12 June, 2009, where the DGCA officials were also present.”
18/06/09 Parul Chhaparia/mydigitalfc.com

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Jet, Kingfisher to hike fares

Mumbai: Following an increase in jet fuel (aviation turbine fuel) prices by oil companies, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines have announced a hike in their fuel surcharge by Rs 400 with immediate effect.
Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had raised aviation turbine fuel price by Rs 3,949 to Rs 36,252 per kilolitre in Delhi effective May 15 midnight while the price went up to Rs 37,367 per kilolitre from Rs 33,260.8 per kilolitre in Mumbai.
A senior official from Jet Airways said that the overall increase in ATF has been about 33 per cent since the beginning of the year and that is why airlines had no option but to raise prices. While Air India did not raise its fuel surcharge today, a spokesperson said that the carrier was also considering such a move. According to a release, Kingfisher’s revised fuel surcharge for distances below 750 kilometers will now be Rs 2550 and Rs 3440 for distances above 750 kilometers. Similarly the revised surcharges are Rs 2350 and Rs 3100 respectively for Kingfisher Red. Air India currently levies fuel surcharge of Rs 1,950 and Rs 2,700 on air tickets up to and beyond 750 km, respectively.
18/06/09 Indian Express

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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

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Jet Airways hikes fuel surcharge by Rs 400

Mumbai: Domestic private air carrier Jet Airways today increased its fuel surcharge by Rs 400 on all domestic sectors with immediate effect.
The increase was necessitated by a sharp hike in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices by 33 per cent since March this year, a Jet Airways spokesperson said.
The hike in fuel surcharge would be applicable on all flights of Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect and Jet Lite, the spokesperson said.
The increase in fuel surcharge comes following an over 12 per cent increase in ATF prices by state-run oil firms on June 15.
17/06/09 Press Trust of India

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