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Weeks before when Jet-Etihad deal is likely to be concluded, Jet has sought additional traffic rights for Abu Dhabi (Etihad's headquarters), Amsterdam, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong.
Apart from increase in capacity from Delhi and Mumbai to Abu Dhabi, new flying points from India like Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore have also been sought.
The two airlines have been negotiating a stake sale deal since last August in which Etihad will buy 24% in Jet Airways.
Earlier, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh had also said that talks with Abu Dhabi to increase the number of seats will be there in this summer only.
Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways is understood to have informed the civil aviation ministry that the deal would be concluded “very shortly” within 2-3 weeks with the same deal structure of 24% stake sale, confirmed a senior civil aviation ministry official.
Goyal met secretary of civil aviation, K N Srivastava and Joint secretary, Prabhat Kumar on Wednesday.
Jet Airways did not respond to email sent to them.
Responding to Jet’s demands for increase in capacity and increase in point of calls, a senior civil aviation ministry official said, “Whatever Jet’s demand is, we have to do our own assessment of the growth of traffic. Right now, it has around 30% of the seats flying between India and Abu Dhabi. Even if we go for increase in seats, there will be equitable distribution according to strength of the carrier.”
Aviation experts believe that Jet’s traffic to Abu Dhabi will be used as a feed for Etihad as they have a code sharing agreement. With high airport and hotel charges in Brussels, existing hub for Jet in Europe, Jet will benefit from shifting to Abu Dhabi.
Keyur Joshi, Co founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Makemytrip, “The increase in seats for Jet would definitely benefit Etihad. However, for east bound traffic, Jet-Etihad may later on make Mumbai, an Indian based hub.”
However, Sharat Dhall, President of Yatra.com said, “ If more traffic rights are granted, this will give better pricing and opportunity to Indian travelers.”
