Jet Airways' Gulf ambitions

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KANTAWALA: Jet Airways connects to 45 destinations in India and 18 globally.

ATN talks to Jet Airways' regional manager - sales and marketing, Shakir N Kantawala, as the Indian carrier prepares to launch services to Dubai.

What is Jet Airways' strategy for the Middle East market?

The Middle East has been long overdue from the airline point of view and long-awaited from the customer point of view.

We were basically waiting for government approvals from the Indian side and once that happened on January 5, 2008, we were able to immediately launch flights from Bahrain to Mumbai and Kochi.

Later that day we started flights from Kuwait to Delhi and Kochi and then on January 23 we launched services from Muscat and Doha to Mumbai, Calicut and Kochi. Our policy is to have direct daily non-stop flights on all of these routes.

What about the UAE?

We already operate services from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai and Delhi (launched May 28) and we are hoping to start flights from Dubai to Mumbai and Chennai on July 23. That's the date we are working towards subject to [Indian] government approvals.

What do you have planned following the Dubai launches?

After Dubai services start we will operate 15 flights daily from the Gulf to India. After that we are looking at Riyadh, again, subject to government approvals. Going forward a lot will depend on the decisions made by the Indian Civil Aviation Authority.

Once we are in Saudi Arabia we will have the GCC covered, although I think there would be potential for the Dubai-Mumbai service to go double daily - the others are sufficient as daily because we are dependent on origin destination traffic.

Why would Dubai-Mumbai double dailies work?

Because of the network we have out of Mumbai. We fly to 45 destinations in India - every four minutes we connect to a city in India. We also fly to 18 international destinations such as London, Bangkok, Shanghai and San Francisco.

We expect trips to the Far East (via Mumbai) to be popular. Brussels is our European hub and from there we fly to several destinations in the US and Canada.

What are the advantages of flying via your Mumbai hub?

There is a huge Indian ethnic segment [living in the Gulf] that wants to go to India first before travelling to other destinations.

They come home to visit family and friends, do business, or to sort out property or banking issues. They then fly on to other destinations in Asia or London for example.

Why is Jet Airways different to other carriers flying the Gulf-India routes?

Our philosophy is to combine the typical Indian warmth and hospitality with Western aspects of reliability and efficiency. We are known for our service standards, both on the ground and in the air. As a company we are 15 years young and the average age of 84-aircraft strong fleet is 4.3 years.

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