Jet Airways starts Mumbai-Bangkok service, to expand fleet by 40%

16 May, 2008: Jet Airways Limited, India's biggest airline company in the private sector, is planning to expand its fleet of aircraft by 40% to 117 planes in the next three years.

The airline’s plan is to have 92 planes by March 2009, 106 planes by March 2010, and 117 planes by March 2011, Gerry Oh, regional vice-president of Jet Airways, was quoted by the India media as saying.

Jet Airways launched a new flight from its base in Mumbai to Bangkok on May 7, 2008.

The new Mumbai-Bangkok flight – 9W 62 – will depart from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 0110 hrs and arrive at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport at 0650 hrs. On the return leg, Jet Airways flight 9W 61 will leave Bangkok at 0840hrs and reach Mumbai at 1145 hrs.

Jet Airways will operate on the Mumbai-Bangkok a ‘Next Generation’ Boeing 737-800 aircraft with premier and economy class configuration. The airline offers economy class return airfares starting from Rs 15,320 and premier fares starting from Rs 35,115 exclusive of taxes.

The Mumbai-Bangkok route will have one flight a day and raises the airline’s flights to Bangkok to 24 a week.

“Flying to Bangkok means good leisure traffic. Our success on Delhi-Bangkok and Kolkata-Bangkok routes has prompted us on to this new route,” Wolgang Prock-Schauer, CEO of Jet Airways, was quoted as commenting on opening the Mumbai-Bangkok flight.

The airline will also start flights on the New Delhi-Hong Kong and Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco routes from July 2008. It is planning to launch an international low-cost carrier in South-east Asia.

Jet Airways had bought budget operator Sahara Airlines in April 2007 for Indian rupees 14.5 billion, and renamed it JetLite.

The airline, which flies to 60 destinations, at present has a fleet of 81 aircraft – including 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 8 Airbus A330-200, and 9 Avions de Transport Regional, or ATR, turboprops.

The average age of Jet Airways’ planes is 4.3 years.

The airline’s main base is Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai with other major hubs at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, Anna International Airport, Chennai, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, Bangalore International Airport, Bangalore, and Brussels Airport, Brussels.

According to figures available in March 2008, Jet Airways’ share of India’s domestic aviation market is 29.8% – including the 7.1% share of its low-cost subsidiary carrier Jetlite.

Jet Airways, which was incorporated as an air-taxi operator on April 1, 1992, started commercial airline operations on May 5, 1993, with a fleet of 4 Boeing 737-300 aircraft. In January 1994, a change in the law enabled Jet Airways to apply for scheduled airline status, which was granted on January 4, 1995.

Jet Airways started international operations with flights to Sri Lanka in March 2004.