India ‘s second – largest private carrier Jet Airways , which is planning to replace its off-peak hours flights in metro routes by its low-fare service to contain losses, will add six more B-737 aircraft to its no frill Jet Konnect network.
“In the next 2-3 months, we would replace off-peak hour full fare flights by jet Konnect,”Jet Airways official asking not to be named said. He said this is largely because there is very little demand for business class even on busier metro routes.
Jet Konnect currently operates 130 flights across the country with a fleet size of 11 B 737s.These six more aircraft being diverted from its full fare service to Jet Konnect will take the fleet size to 17.
Jet Airways has seen a 20-25% increased load on flights operated by Jet Konnect, even though its yield has fallen by about 10%.Jet is planning to introduce all-economy Jet Konnect flight even on the country’s busiest Delhi-Mumbai route.
“Despite the drop in Yield, revenues are on the positive side,” another company official, who also did not wish to be identified, said.He said shorter routes such as Hyderabad-Chennai would be served by Jet Konnect.
Fare gap between a full-service and a budget airline has widened again to 30-35% level. Following a sharp fall in jet fuel price. This has led to air –travelers moving away from full-fare to low-cost carriers.
Incidentally, the two major budget carriers Indigo and Spice Jet have significantly improved their market share in the last one year. The combined market share of the two airlines increased to 26.2% in August this year from 18.8% in the corresponding month last year.
All the full-service .While Kingfisher Airlines has shifted gearing up to launch its budget airline Air India express in the domestic market.
“Corporate travelers have moved to economy class since the downturn in the economy,” the Jet official said.He highlighted that companies has also cut down their travel budgets. And now, even the government had embarked on a major austerity drive and has asked officials to travel only economy class.” The markets is clearly moving towards low-cost air travel ,” the Jet official said .
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