RIYADH, 18 September 2007 — Jet Airways, India’s biggest private airline company, will fly to the Gulf countries other than Saudi Arabia from Jan. 1, 2008.
The Indian government allowed the company to fly to five of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) — Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — while keeping the most lucrative Saudi Arabia out of Jet’s reach.
Some say that by allowing the airline to fly to the lucrative Gulf route, the Indian government has given Naresh Goyal, the founder-chairman of the Jet Airways an opportunity to breadth a fresh lease of life. The airline known for its young and the best-maintained fleets was struggling till recently when its operations were restricted to the Indian skies.
Currently it operates over 340 flights daily across 44 destinations within India and its overseas operations cover Nepal, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Belgium, US and Canada.
With more than four million Indians in the Gulf, the new entrant will offer an additional choice to teeming passengers who are used to the long waiting periods. There is huge demand for seats in this region.
Only the national carriers Air India and Indian, which have now merged into a single airline, fly to the Gulf at present.
However, even without Saudi Arabia, the Jet should find the route very profitable as the flying time to most of the destinations in the Gulf will be around four hours.
The Jet has been permitted to carry 3,682 passengers to Kuwait per week from three destinations in India. Out of the 3,682 seats, 1,582 would be from the Delhi-Kuwait route while Trivandrum-Kuwait and Kochi-Kuwait routes will carry 1,050 passengers each.
Besides, on three routes Kochi-Muscat, Trivandrum-Muscat and Calicut-Muscat, the Jet can also fly 3,150 passengers to Oman per week. The airliner has been given permission to connect Calicut and Mumbai to Doha in Qatar, where it can carry a maximum of 2,100 passengers per week.
Jet Airways expects its overseas operations to constitute half of its annual revenues that is estimated to go up to $3 billion from last year’s $1.7 billion. The airline acquired Air Sahara this year for $346 million.
