Jet to take Shanghai shortcut

Battling to grab market share on international routes, Jet Airways has drawn up plans to make China a hub for flying to popular destinations like San Francisco and Los Angeles on the US west coast and to Vancouver in Canada in the near future.

"It is much shorter to fly from China to the US west coast than from Singapore. This way, the yields on the routes will also be higher," said Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal.

Jet, like all other carriers in the country, is going through a financial crunch, thanks to the huge discounts on air tickets and the rise in jet fuel prices. The airline had launched its international operations some time back and faces stiff competition on these routes. It, therefore, has to look at ways to pare its costs. It has made Brussels its hub for Europe and cities on the east coast of the US.

At the moment, Jet is in the final stages of drawing up its China plans. Besides the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flight to be launched next month, Goyal has plans to start flights to the Chinese capital, Beijing, and to Guangzhou in southern China, not far from Hong Kong and Macau.

Goyal said that there was less competition on the China routes. India has good bilateral relations and agreements with China. Some airlines from China have already been given overflying rights by India and Goyal said that he was hopeful that the Indian government would sort out bilateral agreements with China.

Probably the airline's stress on China as a new destination springs from the fact that Singapore is too protective when it comes to granting flying rights. Goyal alluded to this problem saying that while India extends all cooperation and is less restrictive, Singapore has resorted to certain practices to protect the interest of its airlines, especially when it comes to ticketing.