After connecting destinations in Europe, West Asia and Southeast Asia, Jet Airways has sought permission to fly directly to the United States from next winter. The winter schedule starts in October.
“Jet has asked permission to fly to New York, directly. The flights could be either from Delhi or Mumbai and the airline wants to fly on all seven days a week,” said a senior civil aviation ministry official seeking anonymity.
As of now, the airline owned by Naresh Goyal, flies to New York with a stopover at Brussels. Air India, American Airlines and United Airlines operate direct flights between India and the US.
The US and India have open skies policy, which means any number of airlines and flights can connect any destination in the country. With a fleet of 97 aircraft, Jet Airways serves 47 domestic destinations and 24 international destinations, and is the country’s largest carrier in terms of passengers carried. With a strong domestic network, the airline is increasing its presence in the international arena and now has 100, of its 400 flights, operating to international destinations. The aviation ministry has also given permission to operate daily direct flights to Amsterdam.
Jet recently got permission to fly to Milan and they have a code share with Alitalia, which could be in a slight trouble. “Jets code share with Alitalia will need some change in bilateral agreement signed between India and Italy. We are going to do this soon,” said the official.
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Recovering from recession, Jet is expected to end the current financial year with profit as it has made one in the first three quarters of the current financial year. It ended last year with a loss of Rs 420 crore and the 2009 financial year with a loss of over Rs 950 crore.
In the third quarter of this year, Jet has posted a 11 per cent growth in profit after tax of Rs 118 core for the third quarter against Rs 105 crore for the same period last year.
The airline also witnessed 15 per cent more passengers in the quarter.