Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, today announced that as part of its strategic fleet and capacity rationalization initiative, the airline signed a new lease agreement, for three of its B777-300 ER aircraft with Thai Airways. The three new wide-bodied 777-300 ER aircraft will be dry leased to the Thai National carrier for a period of three years with immediate effect. The lease agreement with Thai Airways is in addition to the four other 777-300 ER aircraft currently on dry lease with Turkish Airlines.
According to Mr. Nikos Kardassis, CEO, Jet Airways, "Jet Airways has worked with a focused approach over the last two years to more closely align the airline's deployed capacity with current demand, streamlining costs in the process. The leasing of three of our wide-body B777-300ER aircraft is among the last steps to fully achieving this objective. With the improvement in the global economic environment leading to a rise in air traffic, Jet Airways is now optimally positioned to return to profitability and sustain stronger growth, both in India and overseas with the introduction of new routes."
Jet Airways recently registered impressive growth, over five consecutive months (October '09 - February '10), consolidating its leadership position in the Indian aviation industry. The average international seat factor during this period exceeded 80%, while the average domestic seat factor was an impressive 74% - reflecting continued high demand for the airline’s award-winning world-class product and service.
JetLite, Jet Airways' all-economy subsidiary too has been showing significant signs of a turnaround registering an average of over 18% growth in passenger traffic on a seat factor in excess of 78% for the past four months.
Effective April 14, 2010, the airline will launch its planned daily non-stop flight from Mumbai to Johannesburg in South Africa, and a daily flight on the Thiruvananthapuram-Dammam sector, effective March 28, 2010. Domestically, Jet Airways' Konnect service will introduce daily services on the New Delhi-Dehradun and the Kochi-Bengaluru-Ahmedabad sectors, as also five-days-a-week service on the Hyderabad-Chennai-Port Blair sectors, effective March 28, 2010.
Jet Airways offers guests seamless connections between several destinations in India and 21 destinations across North America, Europe, Asia and the Gulf, primarily via its major hubs in Mumbai and Delhi.
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About Jet Airways
Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 89 aircraft, which includes 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 12 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 53 next generation Boeing 737-700/800/900 aircraft and 14 modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. With an average fleet age of 4.66 years, the airline has one of the youngest aircraft fleet in the world.
Flights to 61 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including New York (both JFK and Newark), Toronto, Brussels, London (Heathrow), Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Kuwait, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Sharjah and Riyadh.
Jet Airways (including its all-economy, no-frills Jet Airways Konnect service) operates over 380 flights daily.
About Jet Airways Konnect
Jet Airways Konnect is Jet Airways’ all-economy service on key domestic routes, designed to meet the needs of the low-fare segment with value-for-money fares.
Jet Airways Konnect links five major metros- Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata - with several destinations across India, operating over 195 flights daily.
About JetLite
JetLite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways India Ltd. and was acquired by Jet Airways in April 2007. Positioned as an all-economy, no-frills airline, JetLite operates a fleet of 23 aircraft, which includes 16 Boeing 737 series and 7 Canadian Regional Jets 200 Series. The airline flies to 28 domestic destinations and 2 international destinations (Kathmandu and Colombo), operating over 110 flights a day, on average.
Jet Airways, Jet Airways Konnect, its all-economy, no-frills service, and JetLite have a combined fleet strength of 112 aircraft and operate over 490 flights daily.