Airlines India, Indian Airlines

Jet Airways, India’s premier airline, has rescheduled some of its flights operating  from and to Delhi due to IAF fly past exercises being held from January 20 till 24, 2007 and on January 26, 2007, leading to restriction of air space over Delhi between 1100 hours and 1215 hours on these dates. The following flights have been rescheduled on January 20, 21, 23, 24 and on January 26, 2007:

Jet Airways flight 9W 3705/3706 operating on Delhi-Vadodara-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 0535 hours and arrive Vadodara at 0750 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 3706 will operate from Vadodara at 0820 hours and reach Delhi at 1045 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 901/902 operating on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 0545 hours and arrive Kolkata at 0745 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 902 will operate at 0825 hours from Kolkata and reach Delhi at 1040 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 331 operating on the Mumbai-Delhi sector will depart Mumbai at 1015 hours and arrive Delhi at 1215 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 3319/3320 operating on Delhi-Lucknow-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 0845 hours and reach Lucknow at 1010 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 3320 will operate at 1040 hours from Lucknow and arrive Delhi at 1205 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 833 operating on the Bangaluru-Delhi sector will depart Bangaluru at 0940 hours and reach Delhi at 1215 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 333 operating on Mumbai-Delhi sector will depart Mumbai at 0740 hours and reach Delhi at 0935 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 262/261 operating on Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi sector will operate at 1200 hours from Delhi and arrive Kathmandu at 1345 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 261 will leave Kathmandu at 1445 hours and reach Delhi at 1615 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 705/706 operating on Delhi-Ahmedabad-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 1815 hours and reach Ahmedabad at 1940 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 706 to Delhi from Ahmedabad will operate at 2020 hours and arrive at 2140 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 605 operating on Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar-Delhi sector will operate at 1200 hours from Delhi and reach Jammu at 1310 hours. The flight will proceed at 1345 hours from Jammu and arrive Srinagar at 1420 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 605 will depart Srinagar at 1500 hours and reach Delhi at 1625 hours.

On January 20, Jet Airways flight 9W 911/912 operating on Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 1815 hours and reach Kolkata at 2020 hours. On the return leg, flight 9W 912 will operate at 2100 hours from Kolkata and arrive Delhi at 2320 hours.

Similarly, Jet Airways flight 9W 815 operating on Delhi-Bangaluru sector will depart Delhi at 1200 hours and arrive at 1435 hours.

On January 21, Jet Airways 9W 306 will leave Delhi at 1200 hours and arrive Mumbai at 1400 hours.

On January 23, Jet Airways 9W 729 will operate from Delhi at 1040 hours and reach Amritsar at 1140 hours.

The following flights will operate to revised timings on January 26, 2007:.
Jet Airways flight 9W 3311 operating on Delhi-Jodhpur-Delhi sector will depart Delhi at 1245 hours and reach Jodhpur at 1405 hours.
Similarly, Jet Airways flight 9W 3408 operating on Jodhpur-Mumbai sector will operate at 1435 hours from Jodhpur and reach Mumbai at 1630 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 3321/3322 operating on Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi sector will leave Delhi at 1245 hours and reach Amritsar at 1410 hours. On the return sector, flight 9W 3322 to Delhi will leave Amritsar at 1445 hours and arrive at 1610 hours.

Flight 9W 802 operating on Chennai-Bangaluru sector will depart Chennai at 0555 hours and arrive Bangaluru at 0640 hours while flight 9W 804 will leave Bangaluru at 0715 hours and arrive Delhi at 0950 hours.

Jet Airways flight 9W 603 will leave Delhi at 1030 hours and reach Srinagar at 1150 hours.

Jet Airways has cancelled  its flight 9W 306/305 operating on Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai sector and 9W 921/922 operating on Kolkata-Delhi-Kolkata sector on January 23, 24 & 26.

Jet Airways flight 9W 121 operating on  the London-Delhi sector will depart London at 2030 hours (Local Time) on January 19,20,22,23 and 25 and reach Delhi at 1045 hours the next morning, ie. January 20,21,23,24 and 26 respectively.

Jet Airways has announced a daily flight from Kolkata to Port Blair from 11th November 2006. This is going to be the first foreign flight from kolkata. Additionally the airline will also commence a daily flight to Bangkok from Delhi from the same date. For the Kolkata Port Blair flight, Jet Airlines will keep four aircrafts of its fleet at Kolkata.

Presently Jet Airways’ 17 percent revenue comes from international operations and 83 percent from domestic operations. The airline is aiming at a 50 percent revenue from international operations as the competition in the domestic market is getting stiffer. Jet is already flying to Britain, Clolombo, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu and Singapore. Besides, the airline has applied for approval to fly in United States and the airline is planning to add more destinations like Canada, China, South Africa, etc. to its list. The margins on international flights are better than domestic flights. The airline is already trying to cut down its fixed costs and come out profitable in the next financial year. With increase in international operations the airline is expecting to boos its revenues and will be able to thrive in the competitive domestic market.

Jet airways has set for itself an ambitious target of saving $70 million in the next financial year by  way of cost cutting drive. The load factor of jet is under pressure. At present the occupancy rate is about 65 percent. The cost cutting drive is being planned to cope with the competition posed by the new entrants in the aviation industry. The market share of Jet is being eaten up by new low cost carriers.

The management of the company believes that 80 percent of the costs are not dependent on the business model of the company and they are looking at cutting these costs. Recently the company had reported a loss of Rs. 55 crores in the quarter ended on 30th September 2006 due to increase in fuel and personnel costs and reduction in margins.

The company has recently announced its quarterly results posting a loss of Rs. 55.13 crores for the quarter ended on 30th September 2006, against a profit of Rs. 68.59 crores for the corresponding last quarter. However the net income of the airline was stated to have risen from Rs. 1324.24 crores to Rs. 1821.23 crores for the same period. The management of the company has attributed current quarter’s losses to stiff competition, rising costs, fare discounting and ambitious route expansion. There was an increase in personnel costs involved in international operations; this was also one of the factors responsible for conversion of Jet’s profits into losses. The salaries of pilots, engineers and other technical staff involved in international operations are relatively higher.

The airline had low operating margin of about 5% in quarter ended on 30th September 2006 as compared to about 20 % in the corresponding last quarter. This was due to large amount of fare discounting; about 65% of the Airline’s tickets were sold at discount as compared to 35% in the last quarter. There was also pressure due to increase in fuel cost, the fuel bill was increase by 70% from the corresponding last quarter, this was also because of increase in congestion at the major airports.

The airline will have to reduce its operating costs to compete with low cost air carriers like Air Deccan and new entrants like Spice Jet, Kingfisher and Go Air. If the airline had to sell majority of its tickets at discounts it has to cut down its costs to stay profitable. With continued growth in aviation industry more and more new passengers are switching to air travel and they are being attracted towards low priced tickets offered by new entrants.

Jet Airways was awarded as best airline operating in India at the 17th Annual Awards 2006 conducted by TTG Travel Asia held at Pattaya. The airline has bagged this award consecutively for the third time this year.

The TTG Travel Asia honors every year outstanding organizations in the Asia Pacific region that have contributed for the growth of tourism in this region. The awards are given on the basis of the survey of the readers of TTG Asia and voting by the peers of the industry.

Jet Airways was adjudged as best airline on the basis of its quality service to the passengers, network, schedules, it’s dealing with its clients and agents and professionalism of its management.

Earlier the airline was also voted as India’s leading airline at world travel awards and it had also won awards for it’s in flight entertainment.

Jet Airways has been India’s premier airline and has been holding largest market share of Indian domestic air travel business. Jet has been performing consistently year after year, but now its market share is being reduced by low cost new carriers and due to this Jet might have to reduce its operating costs to survive the competition. To maintain its high-class services at low costs will be a challenge for the airline. Now let’s see whether Jet is able to maintain its position in the coming years?