Jet takes off on the low-cost, no-frills route

ew Delhi, Mumbai, June 17 To draw more passengers, Jet Airways is going the low-cost way. By end-June, 110 of its 290 flights will offer no-frills services.
No free meals

The 110 flights will be offered on Jet’s sub-brand, Konnect, launched on May 8. The on-ground and in-flight service on Konnect will be delivered by Jet Airways staff; however, travellers will have to buy their meals on board.

Jet Airways also owns JetLite low-cost airline, which will operate 109 daily flights. Thus, of the 400 daily flights, about 220 will have only the economy class.

Giving financial analysts, an indication of things to come, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, said, “For the short to medium term, the company is adapting to the existing market realities and intends to capture price-sensitive markets through Jet Konnect, in addition to the JetLite offering. These are no-frills economy class services designated to meet the needs of the of the low-fare segment.”

He said the global recession had impacted corporate travel as companies were cutting down costs and travel. “Leisure travel has been impacted.

The domestic market has shown a decline of around 10 per cent for the year ended March 2009 and as against this capacity offered has reduced only by 3 per cent for the period. Currently, yields have been on the decline due to low occupancy in business class,” he added.

The Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Sudheer Raghavan, said that with consumer demand changing rapidly in a dynamic global environment, the Konnect service will give the airline the flexibility and the speed to deploy capacity to meet these changing trends.

The service, which was launched with two Boeing 737s and six ATRs, will have a fleet of seven Boeing and 10 ATR aircraft by the end of the month.
Kingfisher too

The decision of Jet Airways to operate more flights in the no-frills economy class airlines from among its brands comes on the heels of another full-service airline, Kingfisher, going the same path, In May, Kingfisher Airlines converted more than 20 flights to Kingfisher Red, its low-cost cousin.

The decision of Jet Airways to go the low-cost road will affect several vendors including those in the catering business. “The move will result in a drop of about 25 per cent in the catering business, which means that if Jet Airways was uplifting 100 meals a day, they will now pick up only 75,” a source in the catering industry said.

The move could also affect the travel agents as their incomes can get affected due to lower fares.