Jet goes global, fly USA, Canada and China by 2008

Kolkata, Nov 06: Jet Airways, India's premier private airlines, would introduce its first long haul international flights to the USA and Canada with stopovers in China by 2008.

At present Jet Airways operate international flights only to London (Heathrow), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Kathmandu with medium range Boeing aircraft.

Talking to newsmen here today, Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wolfgang Prock-Schauer announced the airlines' inaugural flights to Bangkok and Port Blair besides an additional evening flight to Delhi from Kolkata between November eleven and January 12 next.

He said with a view to further expanding Jet Airways' international operations, they had also decided to purchase 22 long haul Boeing and Airbus aircraft within the next 18 months at a total cost of over 2.5 billion US dollars to be raised through different avenues.

Mr Schauner said following assurances from both India and the US governments to withdraw the ongoing bottlenecks regarding trademark issue by next year, Jet Airways had decided to introduce direct flights to different American and and Canadian cities, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal and Ottawa by 2008 with stopover facilities in Sanghai, Beijing and some other Chinese cities and had placed orders for purchase of as many 22 new aircraft.

Following the acquisition, the total number of Jet Airways fleet would then go up to 80 from the present 58, Mr Schauer said adding among the new fleet there would be 12 Airbus 320 and ten Boeing 777 long haul aircraft for the USA and Canada.

Incidentally, majority of Jet Airways' present fleet of Boeing 737-700 were being operated in the domestic sectors, he said.

The Jet Airways CEO said their decision to introduce Kolkata-Port Blair, Kolkata-Bangkok and Kolkata-Delhi evening flights from November eleven, December one and January 12 respectively was primarily because of at least 30 per cent growth in business for the airlines from the Eastern sector alone.

So high was the demand for Port Blair that all daily tickets to the archipelago for the next three months had already been booked with the demand still growing, the Jet Airways CEO said adding similar situation was prevailing for the Bangkok flight, where the airlines had made very attractive introductory offer for a month for return journey tickets till February next.

Among others Jet Airways Eastern India Senior General Manager Sudhakar Rao was present.

UNI