The Hindu : Jet Airways plans to link more S. Asian countries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 25, 2004

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National

Jet Airways plans to link more S. Asian countries

By S. Vydhianathan

COLOMBO, MARCH 24. Jet Airways, which has made a foray into the international skies by linking Colombo in Sri Lanka with Chennai, is now planning to link more South Asian countries in the near future.

The airline's next international destination will be Kathmandu in Nepal, Dhaka in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Pakistan, said the Chief Executive Officer of the Jet Airways, Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, here today.

The first international flight of Jet Airways on the Chennai-Colombo sector landed here on Tuesday.

The chief executive said that to start with the airline would operate seven pairs of flights on the Chennai-Colombo sector. As it had been permitted to operate 28 flights a week to Colombo from various destinations in India, it would soon introduce five flights each from Bangalore and Mumbai to Colombo, besides from Thiruvananthapuram.

On the introduction of flights on the Delhi-Colombo sector, he said as of now there was no plan to operate on this sector. But the airline had convenient connecting flights at Chennai both to Delhi and Colombo and passengers could use the connecting facility.

Asked whether the entry of private airlines on the Chennai-Colombo sector, which was hitherto monopolised by Indian Airlines and Air Lanka, would lead to a price war, the CEO said that at present the Jet Airways was offering a special return of excursion fare of Rs. 7,460, which would be available till April 30. Even now the airline's normal fare was Rs. 8,285, which, he claimed, was competitive. But special weekend and long-term vacation packages were on the way, he added.

The CEO was confident that the introduction of flights to Colombo would improve the tourist traffic both to India and Sri Lanka, as the Jet Airways was flying to 40 destinations in India apart from Chennai, with convenient timings.

He said the airline was carrying about 6.4 million passengers every year. Though it had not turned the corner so far, he was hopeful that it would improve its financial performance in the near future.

The Joint Managing Director of John Keells Holdings (local partner of the Jet Airways), Susantha Ratnayake, said the new flight would give a boost to the economy of both countries and increase the tourist flow substantially.

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