Jet Airways to up capacity by 50% on certain domestic, international routes

Private carrier Jet Airways today announced the deployment of higher seating capacity aircraft on two domestic and an equal number of international routes from early next year amid growing passenger demand.

Jet Airways flights to Kuwait and Jeddah from Mumbai and vice versa as well as to Chennai and Bangalore from here would be operated by the 254-seater Airbus A330 aircraft from January, 2017 in place of the existing Boeing 737, a release said.

While the wide-body service between Mumbai-Chennai-Mumbai is slated to begin from January 15, the airline will commence its Mumbai-Jeddah-Mumbai and Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai services from January 16, Jet Airways said, adding that the Mumbai- Kuwait-Mumbai service is scheduled to start from January 18.

The use of the bigger aircraft on these routes would enable Jet Airways to offer a luxurious and premium flying experience for guests, at par with global standards, it added.

Earlier this year, Jet Airways had commenced operating its Airbus A330s between Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata routes, expanding capacity.

"The introduction of wide-body services on our key domestic routes not only allows Jet Airways to scale up capacity in response to increase in demand. The A330 aircraft is designed with a spacious cabin, greater leg-room, lie-flat beds in premiere," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Jayaraj Shanmugam said.

The rolling out of the wide body aircraft with its two- cabin configuration of 18 seats in premiere (business) and 236 in economy class will also increase capacity on the key routes by as much as 50 per cent, Jet Airways said.