Jet strengthens Air France-KLM alliance with more direct flights to Europe

Airline plans to start direct flights on Bengaluru-Amsterdam and Chennai-Paris route

Jet Airways, India’s second-largest airline by passengers carried, is planning to start direct flights to Amsterdam and Paris as it intends to deepen its partnership with the Air France-KLM group and Delta Air Lines.

Industry sources say Jet Airways has finalised plans for a direct flight from Bengaluru to Amsterdam and another from Chennai to Paris. The airline is likely to commence operations on these routes from early winter, and will use Airbus A330.

“Jet Airways has secured slots at Schiphol (Amsterdam) and Charles de Gaulle (Paris) airports for both the flights and is in final stages of preparation,” said a person aware of the developments. 

Currently, Jet Airways has a direct flight to Amsterdam from Delhi and Mumbai. Spokespersons of Amsterdam and Paris airports refused to comment. “As an airline with international operations, we continue to evaluate viable opportunities globally. Jet has interline arrangements with over 100 global carriers, including KLM and Delta. We continuously engage with airline partners to explore opportunities to feed traffic to each other's networks,” said a Jet Airways official in response to detailed queries.

Direct flights to the two European cities also bode well for all the three partner airlines, as Jet customers will be able to fly onwards to North America on Delta and Air France-KLM flights.

Last year, the Naresh Goyal-owned airline entered into a commercial agreement with Air France-KLM and Delta to provide codeshare flights in European and North American routes. According to the agreement, Jet Airways codeshares on Delta’s flights from and to 13 destinations in North America via Paris airport, namely Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis, Newark, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City and Seattle. 

Through Amsterdam, Jet Airways can connect to Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Mexico City, Mexico on Air France-KLM flights.

Beyond codesharing, a  commercial agreement allows the airlines to share cost, revenue and profit on such routes. Air France-KLM, Delta have an extensive joint venture, covering routes between Europe and North America and offering about 25 per cent of capacity on transatlantic routes. Jet Airways has also shifted its European gateway from Brussels to Amsterdam last year.

Experts say that there will be more cooperation between the partner airlines which will see emergence of new dynamics in long-haul operations.

“Jet Airways is further consolidating relationship with Air France-KLM and Delta. We expect more cooperation, possibly leading to Jet Airways joining Skyteam in near term, as slowdown in the Persian Gulf is visible and big three of Middle East will struggle with demand creating opportunities for Indian carriers,” said Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer (South Asia) at aviation consulting firm CAPA.

Jet has heavily relied on codeshare with partner airlines to increase its share of international passengers. Codeshare traffic for Jet Airways has surged from 650,000 passengers carried in FY14 to 2.1 million in FY16. Overall, the airline now has 19 code-share partner airlines.