Jet Airways To Induct Four Boeing 737s By May 2003

Jet Airways is going to induct 4 Boeing 737s into its fleet taking its tally of aircraft to 34 Boeing 737s by May 2003.

According to company officials the airlines is also planning to add an additional destination in its schedule as part of its expansion plans.

The airlines is going to introduce the Boeings in a phased manner with the first one being introduced in September, 2002.

The second aircraft will be inducted in November and the last two will be a part of the fleet by February-May 2003.

Jet Airways has government approval to have 34 Boeing 737s and as of now the company has 30 such aircraft.

Out of these only 16 are owned by the airlines while the rest are on lease. The airlines had placed orders for the acquisition of 20 Boeing 737s which were to be inducted in two instalments.

The delivery of these aircraft commenced in 2001 and the process will be completed with the induction of the last four Boeings by May 2003.

These aircraft will replace some of the leased Boeing 737 aircraft. Jet Airways has also acquired Boeing 737-800 Simulator and a Boeing 737-400 flight training device for the training of its pilots on the new fleet of aircraft.

Apart from this, the commercial carrier also has eight turbo-prop ATR72-500 aircraft.

During 2001-02 Jet is estimated to have garnered over 43 per cent share of the Indian domestic air travel market.

It has flown over 30.6 million passengers since the airlines inception in May 1993 until May 2002. During the financial year ended March 2002, the airline carried over 5.8 million passengers. Over 28 per cent of its passenger revenue earnings are derived from overseas sales.

The airlines has been embroiled in controversy from the beginning of this year which has prompted it to re-position itself as a service driven airlines. Jet airways appointed the WPP Group agency Equus Red Cell to do an image re-haul and a new campaign is scheduled for release in June-end.