Jet Airways


Jet Airways Ltd is an Indian international airline based in Mumbai, India which ceased operations on 17 April 2019. From the third quarter of 2010 onward, Jet Airways was the largest commercial passenger airline in India with a passenger market share of 22.6%. With its competitors, mainly SpiceJet and IndiGo, lowering ticket fares in the following years, it was forced to follow suit, hurting overall performance resulting in steep financial losses. It dropped to second place behind IndiGo in October 2017, with a passenger market share of 17.8%. The downward slide continued and resulted in bankruptcy.

History

The airline was granted a scheduled airline status on 14 January 1995. It entered into a marketing agreement with KLM the same year. In 1996, the airline placed a $375 million order for four 737-400 and six 737-800 aircraft from Boeing, which were delivered between 1997 and 2000. Jet Airways was the first airline in Southeast Asia to order the 737-800. In the financial year 1996–97, the airline carried 2.4 million passengers and had a market share of 20 percent, second highest after state-owned Indian Airlines. By this time, the airline had a fleet of twelve Boeing 737 aircraft, operating 83 daily flights to 23 domestic destinations. In 1997, the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Investment of the Government of India announced that foreign airlines would no longer be permitted to take an equity stake in joint ventures with Indian aviation companies, reversing the Government's earlier policy which had allowed carriers such as Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways and Lufthansa to hold a maximum 40% equity stake in their joint ventures with Indian partners. In October 1997, as per this directive, Naresh Goyal took back control of Trade Winds from its foreign investors.
At the Paris Air Show in June 1999, Jet Airways announced an order worth approximately $550 million for ten Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
The airline purchased its first Boeing 737-400 simulator from CAE Inc. in 2001.
By April 2001, the airline fleet had grown to 30 aircraft and was operating over 195 flights daily to 37 destinations within India. Jet Airways suffered losses for the first time since its establishment in financial year 2001–2002 as demand fell and costs increased. Jet Airways was announced as launch customer for the Embraer 175 at the Farnborough air show in 2002, with an order for 10 aircraft and 10 options worth $520 million. But the deal was postponed due the airline's financial difficulties and eventually fell through.
In 2003, the Indian government decided to allow private carriers to operate international services to countries in south Asia, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
and Jet began preparations to launch international services.
The airline launched its first international flight in March 2004 from Chennai to Colombo.
Jet Airways was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and became public company on 28 December 2004. After the Government lifted the foreign ownership limits on Indian airlines to 49% from the previous 40%, the airline moved to raise funds via an IPO. The company's IPO in February 2005, which offered 20% of the airline's stock, saw strong interest from investors leading to oversubscription in retail, non-institutional and institutional tranches and raised Rs 18.9 billion, instantly making Naresh Goyal a paper billionaire. Towards the end of 2004, the government had announced that privately owned scheduled carriers meeting certain criteria could operate to all countries apart from those in the Middle East. Then in January 2005, the Ministry of Civil Aviation granted rights to Jet Airways to operate services to London Heathrow. The airline started its first international, long-haul flight to London in May 2005 with two-class Airbus A340-300s sub-leased from South African Airways.

Growth and expansion

In January 2006, Jet Airways announced its intention to acquire Air Sahara for in an all-cash deal; however, the deal fell through in June 2006. On 12 April 2007, the deal was back on track with Jet Airways agreeing to pay. On 16 April 2007, Air Sahara was renamed as JetLite and was marketed between a low-cost carrier and a full service airline. JetLite became a wholly owned subsidiary of Jet Airways. In August 2008, Jet Airways announced its plans to integrate JetLite into Jet Airways. In October 2008, Jet Airways laid off 1,900 of its employees, who were later re-instated due to intervention from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. In October 2008, Jet Airways entered into an alliance with rival Kingfisher Airlines for code-sharing on domestic and international flights, collaboration on frequent-flyer program and sharing crew and ground handling equipment. On 8 May 2009, Jet Airways launched another low-cost brand, Jet Konnect. It operated a fleet of Boeing 737 Next Generation and ATR 72 aircraft and operated on profitable short-haul routes with higher passenger load factors.

Consolidation

In the third quarter of 2010, Jet Airways became the largest airline in India with a passenger market share of 22.6%. In July 2012, the airline officially sought government approval to join Star Alliance. Jet Airways is not a member of Star Alliance as of 2017. In June 2011, it became the first domestic airline in India to ban meat products and liquids in check-in baggage. Jet Airways merged the JetLite brand into Jet Konnect on 25 March 2012 and started offering business-class seats after the demise of Kingfisher Airlines. In 2013, Etihad Airways planned to buy a stake in the airline following the government's announcement in September 2012 that foreign airlines could take a stake of up to 49% in Indian carriers. On 24 April 2013, Jet announced that it was ready to sell a 24% stake in the airline to Etihad for. The deal, which was expected to be signed in January 2013, was postponed and was completed on 12 November 2013.
Naresh Goyal retained 51% ownership of the stock.
In 2013, the airline lowered prices and entered into a fare war with low-cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet due to falling passenger demand. In February 2013, the airline's market value dropped by due to falling share prices. Jet Airways made profits in the third quarter of the financial year 2013–14, after posting losses over the previous year. Jet Airways announced on 11 August 2014 that it would phase out Jet Konnect by the end of the year as part of plans to re-position itself as a uniform full-service operator. On 1 December 2014, Jet Konnect was fully merged with Jet Airways, making it the third full-service airline in India besides Air India and Vistara. In December 2015, Jet Airways announced the closure of its scissor hub at Brussels Airport by March 2016 and the opening of new hub at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport effective 27 March 2016. As of February 2016, it is the second-largest airline in India after IndiGo, with a 21.2% passenger-market share.

Bankruptcy and cessation of services

As of November 2018, Jet Airways has been reported to have a negative financial outlook due to increasing losses. In March 2019 it was reported that nearly a fourth of Jet Airways' aircraft were grounded due to unpaid lease rates. On 25 March 2019, Mr. Naresh Goyal and his wife Anitha Goyal stepped down from the board of directors.
On 5 April, Indian Oil Corporation stopped supplying fuel to the airline, citing non-payment of dues as the emergency funds have still not been credited. On April 17, the airline suspended all flight operations, due to lenders rejecting Rs 4 billion of emergency funding and its membership in the International Air Transport Association was suspended. On 17 June, after getting no acceptable offers from Etihad Airways and Hinduja Group, lenders to Jet Airways decided to refer the company to National Company Law Tribunal for bankruptcy proceedings with debt of $1.2 billion.
As the group faces insolvency proceedings in the Netherlands after failing to pay two creditors, NCLAT has allowed cross-border insolvency proceedings stating so that the "Dutch Trustee will work in cooperation with the 'Resolution Professional of India."

Corporate affairs

Headquarters

The airline's head office is located at Siroya Centre in Andheri, Mumbai. The head office was previously located at S. M. Centre, a rented six-storey building in Andheri and was moved following criticism regarding working conditions.

Livery

It was navy blue with light grey and chrome yellow. The top and bottom of the aircraft were painted in light grey with the flying sun logo in the navy blue background.
In 2007, a new livery was created by Landor Associates which added yellow and gold ribbons; the design retained the dark blue and gold-accented colour scheme along with the airline's "flying sun" logo. A new yellow uniform was simultaneously introduced, created by Italian designer Roberto Capucci. Jet Airways introduced its new identity in conjunction with a global brand re-launch which included new aircraft and seating.

Controversies

Alleged Trademark infringement

Jet Airways was expected to begin service to Newark via Brussels in June 2005. In March 2005, the airline submitted an application to the United States Department of Transportation; however, the application was opposed by Nancy Heckerman, CEO of a US registered company Jet Airways Inc., based in Bethesda, Maryland, alleging trademark infringement and connections to terrorist outfit Al Qaeda. Jet Airways rebuffed the claims, which was tossed out as a frivolous lawsuit.

Safety

Asmin Tariq, a contractor working for the airline as a security agent at Heathrow airport was implicated in the foiled terror plot on 10 August 2006 to blow up several transatlantic airliners belonging to three different US airlines. Subsequently, the Governments of UK and Singapore requested security-related information from the Ministry of External Affairs on Jet Airways; clearance was further delayed to fly to the US. The US State Department gave the go-ahead for the airline to fly to the US on 15 November 2006.
In August 2014, two pilots of Jet Airways were suspended after a plane carrying 280 passengers dropped mid-air en route from Mumbai to Brussels.

Customer care

On 2 December 2016, Jet Airways flight 9W7083 from Bhopal to Mumbai was held up by a large group of passengers headed for a wedding in Mumbai. There were allegations from other passengers that the wedding party was politically connected and attempted to coerce the cabin crew to disembark passengers so that additional members of their party could be accommodated. The airline claimed it was a technical glitch in their booking system which led to overbooking.

Corruption

In 2016, the airline was implicated in the Gupta family controversy in South Africa when it was alleged by former African National Congress MP Vytjie Mentor that members of the business family had offered her the position of Minister of Public Enterprises, on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, if she agreed to arrange for South African Airways to drop their India route so that Jet Airways could acquire it instead.

Links to underworld

On 12 December 2001, an internal memo from the Indian intelligence agencies; R&AW and IB to the Indian home ministry stated that they had evidence that Jet Airways had intermittent contact with Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel and other gangs of the Indian underworld, related to financial transactions. This information was leaked to the media and parliament proceedings were stalled.
Subsequently, in 2016, reports surfaced that the initial investment for Jet Airways itself had come through shell companies from the Isle of Man, and was heavily funded by the Indian underworld. This was documented in detail in the book A Feast of Vultures.

Destinations

As per its website, Jet Airways serves 57 destinations including 37 domestic and 20 international destinations in 15 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and Middle East and other code share destinations. The airline has its primary hub at Mumbai and secondary bases at Delhi and Bangalore. In March 2004, the airline introduced its first international destination, Colombo, with flights connecting to Chennai. London was the airline's first long-haul destination and was launched in 2005. Since 2007, Jet Airways has had a scissors hub at Brussels Airport for onward transatlantic connections to North America, which was replaced by Amsterdam Schiphol Airport from 27 March 2016.
In 2008, the airline was forced to discontinue international routes because these attracted losses due to global economic downturn; it terminated services to San Francisco and Shanghai. The airline planned to restore the Mumbai–Shanghai route by the end of 2011 but never did so. In 2012, the airline withdrew flights to New York and closed the Delhi–Milan route in 2013. On 1 March 2016, the airline announced the integration of domestic and international operations in Mumbai airport and moved its entire operations to the newly constructed Terminal 2.

Codeshare agreements

Jet Airways codeshared with the following airlines:

Final Fleet

Before the airline was grounded due to financial reasons, the Jet Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft at that time of collapse:

Fleet development

Jet Airways placed its first order for four Boeing 737-400 and 30 Boeing 737-800 aircraft on 11 December 1996; and the first aircraft was delivered on 12 November 1997. It placed its second order for six Boeing 737-700 and two Boeing 737-900 aircraft on 14 June 1999 with deliveries starting in May 2001. The airline launched its next round of fleet expansion in 2005 when it ordered 30 Aircraft at the Paris Air Show. The airline signed deals with Airbus for ten A330 aircraft and with Boeing for ten 737 and 777 aircraft each. Long-haul routes were served using its fleet of Airbus A330-200, Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The airline placed an order for 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on 29 September 2005 which were delivered in 2007. Jet Airways ordered 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft on 29 December 2006 to operate on long-haul routes. On 5 January 2012, it inducted five ATR 72-600 series aircraft to operate on domestic regional routes. It placed a further order for 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft on 23 April 2013 as part of modernisation of its fleet of 737s. In April 2018 and July 2018 the airline entered an agreement to acquire an additional 75 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft each, taking its order tally to 225 Boeing 737 MAX jets. After Jet Airways ceased their operations, Boeing cancelled all of Jet Airways' remaining 737 MAX 8 orders along with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 and 10 orders and Boeing 787-9 orders due to the financial problems and airline's collapse.

Services

Cabin

Jet Airways had three classes of service: First, Première and Economy.
In February 2016, Jet Airways announced the introduction of an in-flight entertainment service for streaming of entertainment content directly to Wi-Fi enabled personal devices of the passengers.

Frequent flyer programme

Intermiles is the airline's frequent-flyer program.

Accidents and incidents