Jet likely to be allowed to fly to Shanghai

Jet Airways may soon be allowed to fly to China. It would thus be able to launch its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight and enjoy a headstart over rival Kingfisher Airlines, which plans to fly non-stop from Bangalore to San Francisco by August. India will allow the Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airlines to fly to Indian cities, as a reciprocatory gesture.

The approval came during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ongoing visit to China. Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal is a part of the business delegation.

Jet has been waiting to kick-start its flights to the US West Coast by flying over the Pacific, which is shorter by a couple of hours than flying via Europe and offers better yields, said sources.

The clearance is the first step for Jet to establish operations in China. Jet will now have to apply for slots and set up a local station, which could take longer in China (typically, it takes six weeks to set up a local station). Experts said a bulk of the West Coast-bound traffic constitutes IT-related business personnel and two-and-half hours could make a difference.

Jet is likely to fly a Boeing 777 (312 seats) on the Shanghai-San Francisco route and sell 15-20 per cent of the seats to people getting off in China and uplift an equal number of people from China.

Flying via Europe can assure volumes, but yields could be lower as airlines have to cope with entrenched players such as British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France and KLM.