Jet Airways jacks up fuel surcharge by Rs 400, to cut number of daily flights by half from July 2, 2009

Jet Airways, based in Mumbai, India, has increased the fuel surcharge on tickets by 400 rupees a ticket on all domestic sectors with effect from June 17, 2009.

This hike in fuel surcharge by Jet Airways comes just a day after India’s state-run oil companies raised the prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by over 12% on June 16, 2009.

In a statement, Jet Airways said that the increase in the fuel surcharge would apply to all flights of Jet Airways, JetLite, and Jet Airways Konnect.

Meanwhile, a section of the media reported that the airline was planning to scale down its full-service carrier, Jet Airways, from July 2009.

Jet Airways was considering cutting the number of flights to almost half from the existing 334 flights, including international routes, the media quoted an official of the company as saying.

Jet Airways, which suffered a loss amounting to Rs 9,614.1 million on consolidated basis for 2008-09, is taking “all possible measures” to reduce losses, the official added.

As a part of the cost-cutting measures, the company was planning to “shunt” Jet Airways’ services that are flying at about 60% or lower occupancy and “shift” the routes to Jet Airways Konnect, which enjoys over 70% occupancy.

The full-service airline Jet Airways would operate, by July 2, 2009, about 150 flights, instead of the existing 334 daily flights that connect 63 domestic and international destinations, according to the official.

Jet Airways Konnect, which at present operates over 100 flights daily, would raise the number of its flights to over 120 flights a day.

According to the official of the company, JetLite, which currently operates 108 flights, was not likely to have any change in the number of flights.

Once the reductions in the routes by Jet Airways take effect in July 2009, the number of flights operated by the company’s full-service carrier Jet Airways would be much less than the total number of services operated by its low-fare subsidiaries, Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite. That is, Jet Airways Konnect and JetLite combined would be operating about 230 flights a day.