Jet Airways

According to Sabre, Jet Airways of India will be suspending flights from Ahmedabad, India to London Heathrow Airport effective January 13th 2008. Currently, the airline flies 3 times a week using an A 332 from AMD to LHR.

Instead, the airline will increase its Amritsar-Heathrow bound flights from 3 flights a week to daily from that same period. All daily flights from ATQ to LHR will be flown by an A 332.

In addition, 9W has won the Indian Government's approval to launch flights to the Middle East from January 1st 2008.

The allocation given to it by the Indian Government for particular routes is as follows :

DEL-KWI : daily A 332 permitted

COK-KWI : daily B 738 permitted

TRV-KWI : daily B 738 permitted

BOM-BAH : daily B 738 permitted

COK-BAH : daily B 738 permitted

BOM-DOH : daily B 738 permitted

CCJ-DOH : daily B 738 permitted

CCJ-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

COK-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

TRV-MCT : daily B 738 permitted

Flights to AUH & DXB have not been approved as yet by the Indian Government.

Analysis :

Since 9W has now been given the green light to expand flights to the Gulf region, they should focus more on this sector and curtail their fast paced North America expansion as the yield / profit margin of flying A 332s from India to the Middle East is much higher than flying India - BRU - North America.

The B 738s are too small to use on certain Kerala/ BOM / /DEL-Gulf routes when EK / EY / KU / SV / QR / GF use wide bodies (on some routes at least) which not only have more passenger capacity but also the capability of carrying 12 tonnes of cargo which is a handy extra revenue generator in this market segment.