Jet Airways appoints Kingshot to manage takeover

Mumbai, Apr 20: Leading private carrier, Jet Airways today announced that a management team headed by Garry Kingshott will manage the business and effect take over of the recently-acquired Air Sahara.

''Pursuant to an agreement reached last week, closure has been effected today of the share purchase agreement of January 2006 between Jet Airways and the Selling Shareholders of Sahara Airlines Limited. Jet Airways has accordingly today acquired all the shares of Sahara Airlines Limited,'' a company statement said today.

With the closure of this transaction, Sahara Airlines Limited has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jet Airways effective from today.

''It is the intention of Jet Airways to operate Sahara Airline as a separate entity whilst improving the operational and financial performance of the business by leveraging the size of Jet Airways.

It is also proposed to rebrand the airline as JetLite in due course,'' the statement added.

Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 62 aircraft with 49 classic and next generation Boeing 737-400/700/800/900 aircraft, three Airbus A340-300E aircraft, 2 Airbus A330-200 aircraft and eight modern ATR 72-500 turboprop aircraft. Jet Airways operates over 340 flights daily.

Flights to 50 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Bangkok, and Kathmandu.

The airline plans to extend its international operations to North America, Europe, Africa and Asia in phases with the induction of wide-body aircraft into its fleet. Since inception in May 1993 until end-March 2007, Jet Airways has flown over 71 million passengers.

UNI