Jet Airways will increase the capacity on international routes through a mix of aircraft reconfiguration and deploying the airbus A330-300 planes which have 30 additional seats than the similar type aircraft in its fleet. The move will enable it to take on competition on the London and US routes without increasing its fleet size.
International operations constitute about 60 percent of the airline's revenue. Currently it operates a mix of Boeing 737s (on Gulf routes), airbus A330-200 ( to US, Singapore and Hong Kong) and Boeing 777-300s ( to London). Next month the airline is adding an airbus A330-300 on lease, the first of the four such planes which will be delivered till next April. Jet Airways has eleven airbus A330 planes in its fleet each seating 220 passengers. The new version will have about 30 seats extra.
Also the airline is reconfiguring five Boeing 777 planes adding more seats in the economy section. The economy section in the Boeing 777 has nine seats in a row and the airline will be adding an extra seat in each row (increasing it to 10). The reconfiguration exercise will be complete by January. The airline has leased out its five 777s to Thai Airways.
The airline posted a consolidated loss of Rs 166 crore in second quarter FY 2013. Although losses narrowed down from Rs 713 crore in same period last year airline continued to bear the brunt of high operating costs. In the last few months it scaled back capacity and withdrew from loss making sectors such as Johannesburg and New York. In the second quarter the passenger flown and loads on international routes dropped but yields improved 28 percent. However with the cost structure remaining high the unit costs increased 16 percent. The international operations recorded a pre-tax profit of Rs 45 crore, the airline said in its investor presentation.
The airline will retain the existing fleet size as it planning to sell or lease the airbus A330-200s in its fleet. "The A330-300s will give us better economics with more seats at almost the same costs. The planes will be deployed on the India-Brussels-US routes. We are in the process of selling and leasing out the excess capacity of the airbus A330-200s,'' said Jet's chief executive officer Nikos Kardassis.
Kardassis said the airline is still to finalise the new routes for next summer but sources indicated that it may deploy the airbus A330-330s on new sectors like Munich. The airline has secured civil aviation ministry permission to launch flights to Munich and Frankfurt expanding its European network. These flights would help the airline align itself with German airlines Lufthansa with which it proposed a code share alliance and join the Star Alliance. However Jet is still to receive government's nod to join the alliance.
Kapil Kaul of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) said "International operations continue to be Jet's strength. The Q2 international results were better than expectation.'' CAPA expects the airline to do a code share with Lufthansa and join the Star Alliance before end of this fiscal year.