Jet Air allowed to import more planes

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, Nov. 23

THE Government has cleared a proposal of Jet Airways and Ahmedabad Aviation for import of aircraft. Official sources, while confirming the development, declined to comment on the number of aircraft Jet Airways has been allowed to import.

``The two proposals were cleared at the last meeting of the acquisition committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation held recently. However, letters to the companies concerned allowing the import will go out only after the minutes of the meeting are approved and signed,'' official sources told Business Line.

Sources claimed that Jet Airways was hoping to get permission to import five new-generation Boeing 737 aircraft.

The proposal, which was pending for around one year, is for importing a mix of next-generation Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-700 aircraft.

The new aircraft which the airline plans to import will be used as replacement for the older Boeing 737-400 aircraft.

The eight-year-old private sector airline has a mixed fleet of 29 Boeing 737 and seven ATR-72-500 series aircraft.

The airline had flown over 25.74 million passenger since its inception in May 1993, till July 2001.

Airline officials had earlier said that Jet will take delivery of three more aircraft this year, including two Boeing aircraft and one ATR-72-500. The airline plans to utilise the aircraft on destinations which will help get good loads.

The airline has already started several new services. In October, the airline started a twice-daily service on the Delhi-Vadodara sector apart from providing a daily connection between Delhi and Jodhpur.

Jet Airways is likely to use the new aircraft for launching flights to more destinations and providing greater connectivity. Among the services it is planning are flights between Delhi and Bhubaneswar, besides a twice-daily flight between Delhi and Hyderabad, and Delhi-Ahmedabad.