Jet Airways (India) Ltd, has applied to the government for permission to fly West Asia routes from India, ahead of the year-end expiry of a monopoly that state-owned carriers Air India Ltd and Indian Airlines Ltd have been guaranteed on the lucrative sector, its chairman has said.
“We have applied to the civil aviation ministry to fly to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha and Kuwait and are hoping to get a favourable response as per the policy,” Naresh Goyal, who chairs the board of the Mumbai-based aviation firm, said in an interview on Tuesday.
Goyal’s continued focus on international expansion comes at a time when foreign carriers such as Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Etihad and British Airways Plc. are increasing the frequency of flights to and from India; they are being, matched in part by Air India. (On Tuesday, Jet announced new flights to Toronto from Delhi via Brussels.)
West Asian routes, despite intense price competition, have been a cash cow for India’s state-run airlines in the last three years, during which no other Indian carrier could fly there.
05/09/07 Tarun Shukla and Mehul Srivastava/Livemint
Friday, September 07, 2007