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Taking wings: A file picture of Jet Airways aircraft on the new domestic departure terminal 1D at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, May 7

Jet Airways will launch an all-economy low fare service called Jet Airways Konnect on Friday on some routes. This initiative has been taken considering the falling load factors on its full service option on those routes.

Jet officials reiterated at a press conference here on Thursday that Konnect was not a new airline. In fact, it could even cease to exist once demand for the regular Jet Airways service increases and the issue of low load factors becomes irrelevant.

The on-ground and in-flight service will be dealt by the Jet Airways staff which will include their uniforms and the 9W flight code. Jet will use two Boeing 737-800s and six ATRs for Konnect, which will fly on 19 routes with 54 flights daily across 38 cities.

These routes include Chennai-Coimbatore, Chennai-Madurai, Chennai-Kochi, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Bhopal, Mumbai-Udaipur, Bangalore-Pune and Bangalore-Mangalore.

According to Mr Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways, the routes chosen for Konnect were being operated by Jet Airways at 50 per cent load factor. Research indicated that a low fare product on these routes would see load factor exceed 70 per cent and a passenger increase of about 35 per cent.

Asked why the airline did not opt for the simpler option of expanding routes on JetLite, he replied, “To move assets between two carriers which have separate air operator certificates is a time consuming process because regulatory approvals have to be sought. Jet Konnect is what we are branding our economy class offering just as we brand our business class Premiere.”

He added that JetLite was already operating on a network with seat factors of over 70 per cent which Jet does not want to “disrupt”. “What I want is a quick-to-implement rapid and faster solution to a changing market condition which is what Jet Airways Konnect offers,” said Mr Raghavan.

Further, JetLite and Jet Airways Konnect have common features in terms of being priced at a low fare carrier level (for the economy class), buying meals on-board and earning miles on the Jet Privilege membership.

The difference lies in the routes they fly on. The airline says that the routes of both offerings have been so planned that there will be no overlap.

In the event of this happening, the timings will be suitably changed. Jet Airways Konnect could also be available as an option on metro routes during lean hours when there is more leisure traffic.

More Stories on : Airlines | Strategy | Jet Airways (India) Ltd

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