 "Jet Airways explores lease, sale options for its long-haul planes")
Jet Airways is in discussions with Air Serbia to lease an A330 aircraft and is evaluating options to operate or sell Boeing 777 planes upon return from Etihad Airways. Jet Airways has seven aircraft on lease with Etihad, including an Airbus A330 and six Boeing 777s, and lease terms will end this year.
Jet Airways did not respond to a query on its discussions with Air Serbia. A report in Serbian media said the local airline's chief executive and chairperson had inspected the A330 aircraft and the airline would deploy Jet's aircraft on Belgrade-New York route from June.
Etihad owns 49 per cent in Air Serbia.
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Sources said Jet was considering launching a second Delhi-London flight with a Boeing 777 aircraft upon end of lease term. It may also deploy an Airbus A330 plane (currently on Brussels-Newark route) on Mumbai-Singapore route.
Jet Airways has a fleet of 115 planes, a mix of turboprop, narrow-body, and wide-body planes. This includes 10 Boeing 777s and 12 Airbus A330. Ten of these planes are on lease and the rest it flies to London, Paris, Brussels, Newark, Toronto, and Hong Kong.
Six Boeing 777s and an A330 plane are on lease to Etihad till 2016-end while three A330s have been leased to Turkish Airlines till 2020.
Already Etihad has announced that it will replace the leased 777s on US routes with its own planes. Currently, the Gulf airline uses Jet Airways planes on San Francisco and New York routes and will deploy its own aircraft on these routes beginning April and June, respectively.
Last August, the Jet Airways management had indicated that it was evaluating an option of extending the lease of its 777s, which are now being flown by Etihad. But Etihad's announcement makes it clear that at least four of the six 777s are on their way back to Jet.
Sources said the Jet management is evaluating options to deploy the 777s on existing or new routes or further lease or sell these aircraft upon return from Etihad.
Last year, Jet Airways was planning to sell or lease back its entire wide-body fleet to raise cash and retire a portion of its Rs 12,000-crore debt, but the plan did not take off.
"Review of market conditions and route opportunities is an ongoing process at Jet Airways. Changes in the network and fleet, if any, will be communicated at an appropriate time,” an airline spokesperson said in an e-mail response.
“As is normal in the airline sector, carriers often change capacity on routes based on market conditions. Etihad Airways constantly reviews its fleet plans and aligns aircraft on routes when required,” Etihad Airways said in its response.
To let customers lock fares
Passengers booking tickets on Jet website will now have a facility to select fare and book tickets later. The airline will allow customers to book within 72 hours of the selection on payment of a fee. Jet is the first airline in the country to provide this to its customers who make reservation through its website or app.
Jet Airways and other full-service airlines allow travel agents to make reservation and hold it 24-72 hours before issuing tickets, without charge, but this facility is now available for foreign routes.
Jet Airways said its booking feature FareLock is applicable for flights across its network and offers guests the opportunity to plan their travel with greater ease and convenience.
“FareLock is available on the airline’s online platforms, its website, the mobile site, and the mobile app. Once a guest selects the FareLock option, they will need to pay a nominal fee of Rs 350 for a domestic ticket and Rs 700 for a global ticket to lock the available fare. Guests can return to any of the Jet Airways online platforms within the next 72 hours to purchase the tickets and confirm their booking at the pre-selected fare by using the Manage Booking feature,” the airline said on Friday.
