Jet Airways lines up more domestic, int'l flights

Private carrier Jet Airways today said it would introduce more flights on both its domestic and international networks and launch new services from three cities to its Abu Dhabu hub during the summers.
The airline is also on course with its plan for becoming profitable by 2018, Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer Cramer Ball said here.
"We are increasing five per cent capacity on our domestic routes and another 11 per cent on the international," Ball told reporters on the sidelines of an aviation summit here.
He said that the carrier also plans to launch new flight services to Abu Dhabu from Pune, Mangalore and Ahmedabad as part of its summer schedule.

Airlines' summer schedule in India commences from March 29 and lasts up to October 28 every year.
Ball said that Jet Airways' plans to become profitable in three years were well on track as he underlined that it has seen a lot of improvement in finances recently.

It may be noted that the Naresh Goyal-promoted airline, in which Gulf carrier Etihad holds 24 per cent stake, had returned to profitability with Rs 3-crore profit from operations in the three months ending December, 2014, on the back of higher international passenger traffic and lower fuel prices.
The airline had reported the profit in the October- December period after seven straight quarter losses.

The Jet Airways chief executive also said that the airline had no plan to discontinue its subsidiary JetLite, which flies under the erstwhile Air Sahara operating permit.
He also justified the merger of JetLite operations with parent Jet Airways on the grounds that the two brands were creating confusion in the minds of customers.
JetLite was originally Air Sahara before being acquired by Goyal in 2007 and operated as a budget carrier till November last year. But in December, the two carriers were integrated into one to operate under one single full-service brand.