FAA downgrade: Jet recasting US plans, rules out revenue hit

The Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways today said though it did not see much impact from the recent downgrade of the country's aviation safety rankings by the US sectoral regulator, it is reworking the strategy for the American market.
Describing the FAA downgrade as a "limited one" Jet Airways senior vice-president for alliances and planning Raj Shivkumar said, "there is no restriction on Jet Airways placing its code on any US carrier's flight, including United. So, we do not expect a big reduction in revenue because of this downgrade."
Addressing the analysts, he admitted that "However, we are in the midst of re-planning our strategy of offering consumers viable options into the US over the coming days and weeks (following the US Federal Aviation Administration last month."

Late last month, FAA downgraded the country's safety from top to second ranking citing inadequate oversight by the DGCA.
The downgrade bars domestic carriers like Air India and Jet Airways--the only two domestic airlines flying into the US--from increasing flights to that country from what they currently operate or have any new code-share relationships with any US airline. It will also scuttle Air India's much-anticipated entry into the Star Alliance.
Jet also said its partner Etihad will have to take a call on the proposed Abu Dhabi-New York flight, which it was supposed to operate from May.

The airline in January had announced it would reintroduce its service to New York in May with a stopover in Abu Dhabi. At present, Jet flies to Newark and Toronto via Brussels. It had stopped its New York service last year due to losses and code shares with Brussels Airlines on the Trans-Atlantic leg of this route.

Jet had also said it has retained its two landing slots from Delhi, which were taken away by the DGCA recently for non-compliance.
"We represented to the DGCA and placed all facts before him. The DGCA removed the restrictions after considering our submission," Shivkumar said.