[AMcWhirter]

This Indian airline suspended operations in April 2019 but it is now preparing to return.

Local media reports Jet Airways will begin flying soon although I suspect initial routes will be domestic only.

The new Jet Airways has new investors and a new management team.

Meet our first batch of wonderful and experienced cabin crew that started service training today. Over half are former Jet crew, and all are getting ready to bring the ‘joy of flying’ back to the skies even better than before!
(1/2)#TheJoyIsComingBack pic.twitter.com/Ye5RdSaI1Y

— Jet Airways (@jetairways) August 22, 2022

[cwoodward]

Jet I read will restart operations with 20 leased A320 aircraft for which pilots have already been recruited.

All these aircraft will be brand new and will be leased from major lessors. This surprises me rather as it seems that new A320’s are in short supply from leaser’s. It seems that none of the older larger aircraft owned by Jet will be used at this time.

[cybertravller]

I wonder if Etihad has poured more money in?

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AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

[quote quote=1229706]I wonder if Etihad has poured more money in?[/quote]

As noted above Jet Airways has new investors.

Local media reports it’s the Jalan-Kalrock consortium.

[cwoodward]

The airline looks to have a decent chance of success this time around with a 30 industry veteran, who has held senior rolls with many well regarded airlines Sanjiv Kapoor at the helm as Chief Executive Officer and with an experienced industry team, including the previous 25 year veteran of Jet Capt. PP Singh enticed back as operations manager, holding the other senior rolls.

The original Jet was a much loved and well regarded airline that delivered a very good product on which I travelled a couple of times – unfortunately though it lost squillions……..
I can’t see any anything related to Etihad in the mix but I would not be surprised if Tata was involved in the background.

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AMcWhirter

[Inquisitive]

Jet airways may find it tough this time. When Jet airways was doing good, that time competition was limited.

Now Indian aviation sector is crowded with many good players.

Indigo captured majority share with a fine balance between ticket prices and schedule reliability.
Spicejet cornered the low cost segment.
Vistara play on the high end market.
And after Air India was bought by Tata, it is likely that will be a tough competitor.

In addition, there are a couple of other airlines.
So unless Jet Airways make their business model right, it will be difficult to make a lot of money.

[IanFromHKG]

It’s a shame that India lost two airlines which offered an excellent customer experience, Jet being one of them. First airline I recall flying on that had a “do not disturb” light at the seat (such a simple but great idea) and I also remember one time when boarding in Mumbai that a porter practically leapt at me at the boarding gate in order to carry on my hand-luggage and stow it for me. I am not a big fan of porters and I was resigning myself to having to fork out another wodge of rupees but when I proffered it he graciously waved it away and dashed back up the jetbridge to deal with another passenger. The one and only time that has ever happened to me (although in fairness, many years ago, a BA cabin crew member kindly offered to help me stow my hand luggage but since I was twice her size and it weighed about 50kg (it had cast-iron barbecue griddle plates in it – long story) I suggested I just put it in the cupboard myself).

The other, of course, was Kingfisher which sadly collapsed just as it was about to join oneworld (who were having a bad run – didn’t Malev collapse at about the same time?). I well remember a flight back to HK – it was an overnight flight on an A330 which, one might have thought, would be too small to have a manned bar – but it did indeed have one and I remember spending almost the entire (overnight) flight there chatting to other passengers. Come to think of it, it is pretty amazing (the barman worked quite hard) that I can remember the flight at all! I did have just one small complaint – I could only get all five massage zones in my seat working at once rather than being able to select just the ones I wanted. Tough times. And I also remember thinking it odd that the lounge in Mumbai (a shared one) didn’t serve Kingfisher beer, which would have been an obvious choice!

I forget which of the two offered an inflight pressing service – I think it might have been Jet.

As I said, both great airlines in terms of customer service. I wonder whether the new Jet will be as good.

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GivingupBA

[cwoodward]

Yes it was Jet Ian
Two very good airlines and hopefully Jet will again be well received. If it pitches (and delivers) the same quality product as the first time around I feel that it will be as there is still a fair bit of room in the still new Indian top end market for a quality player long haul – but short haul is now it seems getting rather crowded.

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IanFromHKG

[IanFromHKG]

[postquote quote=1230244]

Agreed, and with Air India’s current travails one hopes that (although I am very unlikely to travel on them, India not being on my travel list for the foreseeable future) they will offer a quality long-haul alternative.

Such a shame that Kingfisher didn’t succeed – as I recall they had ordered A380s and I can’t help but think – given the quality of the onboard product they had on the A330 – that their A380s would have been quite something.

Let’s hope that the new Jet can equal or better their former incarnation.

Of course they were previously part of the informal “Etihad alliance” (or whatever it was called) of airlines in which Etihad made significant investments, as I recall. Other brilliant investments by Etihad (ahem!) included Alitalia, Air Berlin and others. Virgin Australia too, and although that survives it is a very different entity.

All of which just highlights the importance, in these modern times, of being a member of an alliance in order to compete internationally as a premium airline. Some manage it in a limited way (JetBlue seems to be doing quite well, for instance), but for the rest it seems to be a bit like trying to be a major international accountancy firm without being part of the Big 4. Is there any news on whether Jet will join one of the big three alliances? I seem to recall it tried to join Star in its previous incarnation but failed.

[cwoodward]

Rembering what happened to almost all of the airlines in “Etihad alliance” That would I believe not be a good idea Ian

[IanFromHKG]

[postquote quote=1230294]

Indeed, but then the “Etihad alliance” didn’t offer the same level of connectivity and mutual benefit as the big three alliances do. When you look at the bulk of the non-ME leading carriers, they are pretty much all part of an alliance (well, a couple of Russian ones aren’t any more, but…!). The ME carriers have their own special geographic advantage, but even then EK went into bed with QANTAS and QR joined OW.

AI is part of *A so cannot imagine Jet would be welcome there. OW would again be the more obvious choice, given the heavy traffic between India and the UK (BA), US (AA) and Malaysia (MH). On of the other busiest destinations from India is Bangladesh, but Biman is unaligned so no existing alliance has a particular advantage there.

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