Jet Airways has confirmed that it has plans to expand to other European destinations, after launching its daily Delhi-Milan direct flight yesterday.
“Our mature international routes are doing very well and have an average load factor of 82%. We do have plans to expand to all primary gateways in European gateways,” Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan said.
Asked why Milan was chosen over Rome, Raghavan said apart from being a major business centre with a large Indian population, the route worked out better for Milan. “Rome is definitely an option and we will fly there too. It is just a question of time,” he said. Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardassis said the airline would soon work out a code-share agreement with Italy. “The air services agreement between the two countries has to be modernised for this and there is a bilateral coming up between the two countries to rework the number of seats that can be flown between the countries,” Kardassis said.
Raghavan says the forecast is positive for all sectors — both domestic and international — and some Jet Konnect (Jet Airways’ low-fare arm) flights have been converted to full service flights earlier this year. “The arrangement is working very well and this shows that there is high demand not only for low-cost carriers but even for full-service carriers too. This also shows whichever way the market swings we will be able to address the situation.”