It's destination Gulf for Jet Airways

With over 100 flights a week from the new year, Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways is making an aggressive gamble in the highly competitive West Asian market.

And he is making a double-pronged attack. Jet will have 56 flights (around 9,400 seats a week) from four destinations from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and Kozhikode to Bahrain and Doha (non-stop), Muscat and Kuwait, and cater to the middle and upper ends of the market.

Its subsidiary and value airline, JetLite, is also finalising its operations and waiting for the government clearances to fly to Muscat, Oman, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Surely, the Gulf is a key market, which till recently was a monopoly of Air-India. It was the only Indian carrier that could fly there.

In terms of passenger traffic, West Asia accounts for about 36 per cent of the 20.2 million passengers, both in-bound to and out-bound from India. Air-India and its low-cost subsidiary, Air-India Express, account for 51 per cent of the market (with 49,000 seats a week).

But it is also a market that is growing at over 11 per cent and surely attractive for an Indian carrier with international ambition.

Jet's strategy is to ensure that it does not take competition head on for the time being. For instance, it is insulated from taking on one of the world's fastest growing airline, the Emirates, on this sector as the Dubai-based airline does not operate to destinations Jet will be flying currently.

Emirates has 98 flights a week (about 22,650 seats a week) after its revamp and, according to Emirates, it has no plans to announce expansion in the West Asian market immediately.

Jet has also ensured that it does not hit the national carrier, at least not in the beginning. Air-India and Air-India Express do not have strong presence on these routes. Struggling with aircraft shortage, the airline has been reducing its exposure on these routes.

For instance, Air-India does not fly to Doha, Muscat and Bahrain. It operated 11 flights to Kuwait till November 20, but those have been suspended.

Air-India Express flies to Doha and Bahrain (both together) and Muscat, but it mainly caters to the labour-class passengers, offering very low tariffs, which even JetLite won't be able to match.

Jet is not going in for bigger planes at the onset. It is starting operations with 737-800s and then follow it up with A330s if the traffic picks up.

"It has taken us two-and-a-half years to have a wide-bodied plane on the Singapore route, smaller aircraft will initially help us to stabilise the route," said Saroj K Dutta, executive director, Jet Airways.

But airlines such as Gulf Air and Qatar Airways could be formidable competitors to Jet. Qatar Airways, based in Doha, flies from seven destinations in India and will be adding the eighth flight from Ahmedabad soon, taking its total to 51 weekly flights from India directly to Doha.

Gulf Air, on the other hand, is banking on its strong West Asian presence. Gulf Air's Adnan Malek said, "The West Asian market is our strength and we operate about 500 flights a week within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. We are now operating on revamped schedules. India is a prominent market for us and we operate 42 flights a week from India to different destinations."

But Jet says it hopes to break even in six to seven months of launching its operations, unlike the long-haul sector, where it hopes to stabilise after about 18 months. The estimate hinges on prices of the aviation turbine fuel.