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A slowdown in international passenger traffic has forced Jet Airways [Get Quote] to cancel two flights on the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route. The airline pulled out flights operating on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, citing a dip in load factors. Incidentally, the decision has been taken barely a week before Jet launches its Dubai operations on August 23.

"We have decided to cancel two of our frequencies on the Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route as we found that mid-days are less booked. But this decision is temporary and only till November.

We will review the situation after that. But the route has developed well for us, with at least 70 per cent load factors," said Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO, Jet Airways. Jet would be cancelling flights beginning September.

Prock-Schauer denied the launch of a new route in coming months, but left open the possibility of re-launching the cancelled flights after a revision in fares and a direct flight to San Francisco. "Pricing is a dynamic process and a move to lower the fares on the route can be considered later," he said. 

Travel trade experts point out that Jet has lost out to well-established airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific in garnering a market share on the India-Shanghai-San Francisco route. "Singapore Airlines and Cathay provide better connectivity to and within the US, an advantage that Jet has lost out on.

Generally people flying to the US prefer to fly via Singapore rather than through Shanghai," said a travel trade expert based in Mumbai who did not want to be identified. The US-based United Airlines and Air China are the only carriers that operate on the route, on a code-sharing basis.

The slowdown in the travel industry and the US market have adversely impacted the leisure and business travel segment. "Business travel between the US and Shanghai has dipped and this has impacted the load factors. Also, students constitute a majority of the flying population from China and this load factor is not a year-round feeder," said a travel tour operator from Mumbai.

Moreover, experts point out that Jet has been unable to use travel agents in promoting new markets. "If Jet ignores the established travel agents while promoting a new destination, why would we want the airline? The Singapore and Cathay airlines give us better incentives," said Karl Dantas, the Mumbai-based travel consultant.

The international operations contributed one-fourth to Jet's total operating revenues, but did not led to a surge in seats. In fact, the seat numbers declined to 65.6 per cent in the first quarter of this financial year from 66.4 per cent last year.