SME Times News Bureau | 18 Apr, 2019
Air India wants to take 4-5 wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft of the
now-grounded Jet Airways and may hold discussions for it with the
airline's lead lender State Bank of India (SBI).
The move is aimed at catering the peak demand on various international routes such as India-Gulf and India-UK.
Jet
Airways has 10 Boeing 777 in its fleet which it used to serve various
popular destinations in Europe and North America before halting the
entire international operations.
"Air India has expressed its
interest to take some of the B777s on lease. The initial proposal is
there," an industry source told IANS.
A SBI spokesperson could not be reached for comment on the development.
After
Jet Airways suspended its international operations the airfare on most
of the foreign routes have jumped sharply with tickets on routes like
Mumbai-London becoming prohibitively expensive.
Air India wants to capture the traffic on these routes by deploying additional capacity.
Last
week, low-cost carrier SpiceJet had announced to induct 16 B737 into
its fleet which were earlier operated by Jet Airways. The airline would
take another six aircraft and operate them on domestic routes in few
weeks.
While many domestic carriers have grabbed the opportunity
created by suspension of Jet Airways' operations and launched new
flights on domestic routes, additional capacity is yet to be mounted on
international routes to fill the gap.
Facing severe liquidity
crisis, Jet Airways on Wednesday night suspended its operations
indefinitely. The airline's revival now depends on successful stake sale
initiated by the lenders led by SBI.
