Jet to expand in Europe to attract South, East Asian traffic

Aiming to attract passengers of South and East Asian origin, Jet Airways has applied to the government for traffic rights to rapidly expand into continental Europe to fly people to Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

“We are considering operating to Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, some places in Germany and other parts of continental Europe. Shanghai and Beijing are also being looked at. We have applied to the Civil Aviation Ministry for traffic rights (to these destinations). We are hopeful of getting approvals soon”, Jet Chairman Mr Naresh Goyal said here.

“I hope those clearances come so that we as an Indian carrier can play a further important role for the convenience of customers and (in getting) India’s market share (of international traffic) what we deserve,” he told Indian journalists on the sidelines of the annual summit of the International Air Transport Association here.

Maintaining that the airline wanted to tap the huge market of South Asians, living in Europe, who currently fly to their homes by Gulf or European carriers, he said his airline is “already in the second place” to fly out such passengers to Dhaka, Colombo, Kathmandu or even Bangkok.

“We are watching how the Gulf carriers are moving traffic from Europe to South and East Asia. ... We are preparing how we can take on this competition”, he said noting that there was big traffic between Europe and Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The plan is to bring in South and East Asian traffic from Europe and fly them to their destinations with a short stopover at the hub of Delhi.

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