All the airline's guests will travel on Thursday to Amsterdam in 15 buses and will be accommodated there in hotels.
India's largest private sector airline Jet Airways has postponed its $400 million (Rs 1600 crore) rights issue slated for March this year by three or four months, the third postponement since the board approved it in June, owing to poor market sentiment.
Giovanni Bisignani, CEO of International Air Transport Association, said Delhi and Mumbai airports were one of the worst contributors to the crisis, for their 207 per cent hike in charges. "There is no room for this nonsense in our future. When demand drops, suppliers cannot divide the same costs among fewer customers. The shape of everything must change," he declared.
Jet Airways is working on a plan that will entail a reduction in flight duty hours of its unconfirmed cabin crew (that will reduce their take-home salary), withdrawing some perks and downgrading entitlements like hotels as part of a package to reduce manpower costs. Perks on the block include a weight allowance (given to cabin crew if they maintain a certain body weight) and allowances for staying abroad amongst others.
Value-carrier JetLite, formerly full-service airline Air Sahara, which was bought by Naresh Goyal last year, will offer a voluntary separation scheme to 750 employees who have been with the airline for one year or below, Chief Operating Office Rajiv Gupta confirmed on Friday.
The carrier, which fired 1,900 employees in October only to reinstate them under pressure from various quarters, has made the request to pilots, cabin crew and engineering staff, a source in the airline said on the condition of anonymity. It is, however, not clear what the airline proposes to do if the employees do not agree for a voluntary pay cut.
Old-timers say Jet boss Naresh Goyal, although still razor sharp, doesn't have the same energy he once did and this reflects in his 'baby'.
Less than 48 hours after Jet Airways announced the retrenchment of 1,900 employees, the airline has decided to reinstate all the employees. Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal, in the late evening press conference on Thursday, requested all the sacked employees to come back to work from Friday.
After all, the employees did not flock to the Shiv Sena-run union but to Raj Thackeray despite the fact that many of the sacked employees were not Marathis. These non-Maharashtrians, going by the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, were those who came and usurped the local's share in Mumbai's and Maharashtra's economy.
If there was no pressure, then how come the decision to sack staff was reverted within 12 hours, asked Raj.
Justifying the coming together of the two airlines, which account for about 60 per cent of the market share, Goyal said that the break-even point for the aviation sector is at 90 per cent capacity utilisation whereas, "We are now operating between 60-70 per cent." Goyal said, "On top of all this, international airlines are dumping capacity in India, lowering their prices knowing we cannot match the competition.... therefore, we have to work together."
Kingfisher chief Vijay Mallya walked into the corporate head office of Jet at S M Centre in Andheri to discuss the issues of common interest with Naresh Goyal, as both the airlines are losing an estimated up to Rs 20 crore a day.
A Jet Airways spokesperson confirmed the pay cuts but said that the move was only temporary and once the situation improved, it would do a revision. The salary cuts range from 5 to 25 per cent and include the top management. In addition, other perks like car facilities and car maintenance allowances have also been withdrawn from May onwards, the source said.
Confirming this, Jet Airways' CEO, Wolfgang Prock-Schaeur, said, "In the process of integrating the airlines, which is a must to keep JetLite afloat, there will be a shift of certain employees from JetLite to Jet and the workforce for both the airlines will be combined."
Come mid-April, India's largest private airline, Jet Airways, will don a fresh look. The Naresh Goyal-promoted airline will have fresh internal and external livery for aircraft to reflect its new corporate image.
Former Air India Executive Director Jitendra Bhargava had filed the appeal questioning the decision of CCI to approve the Jet-Etihad deal without carrying out a detailed assessment.
Jet Airways is planning to launch flights to Shanghai, San Francisco and Washington from New Delhi and Mumbai by February. The company also intends to raise Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) via equity dilution.
Jet Airways has convened a board meeting on Friday, May 23, which is expected to consider the future of executive director Saroj K Datta, who, sources said, may exit the airline after May 31. Chairman Naresh Goyal, who was in Mumbai last week, reportedly discussed the issue with Datta, a veteran of over 46 years in the airline industry.
"With the regulatory approval process now finalised for the new route, we are very pleased to enter this new stage of Jet Airways' North American expansion," Jet Airways founder and chairman Naresh Goyal said.
Jet said apart from Hariharan, AS Bedi and S Bandula are leaving the company as a result of better career prospects and family commitments. While refusing to be drawn into specifics, Jet pointed out that attrition was a common phenomena in any business enterprise and the growing aviation industry in India cannot be excluded.
Both Goyal and Mallya had figured in Forbes' annual list of world's billionaires published earlier last month, where Mukesh and Anil Ambani were named as two richest in India. According to Forbes, Goyal's fortune is valued at $ 1.4 billion, while that of Mallya is $ 1.2 billion. Naresh Goyal and Vijay Mallya are both vying for dominance of Indian skies. The are the only Indian names on the list. It also includes the feud between Russia's Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov
India 's airline sector is expected to report losses of $1bn for the year ended last month - double that of a year earlier, according to the head of one of the country's biggest airlines. Naresh Goyal, founder and chairman of Jet Airways, said he expected high costs and fierce price wars to prompt more consolidation in the industry and Jet was ready to seize the opportunity to acquire rivals in India and overseas.
India's largest private carrier Jet Airways will report a full-year loss for 2007-08 fiscal and break even only in the financial year ending next March, said its chairman Naresh Goyal. Earlier in January, Jet Airways had reported a net loss of Rs 91.12 crore (Rs 911 million) for the quarter ended December 31, 2007 as against net profit of Rs 40.04 crore (Rs 400 million) for the year-ago period. Goyal expects Jet Airways to break even in the current fiscal, ending Mar 31, 09.
Naresh Goyal-owned Jet Airways launched its first flight for Hong Kong from Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) in Mumbai on Monday. Jet Airways is the first private carrier to have started a service to Hong Kong from India.
Pilots and engineers to be affected by this move are understood to have expressed their opposition to it and are considering their response, the source said. The airline employs around 13,200 personnel with around 2,000 of them drawing a salary of more than Rs 100,000 a month. These officials comprise mainly pilots and maintenance engineers.
"The markets do not remain the same forever but still, anything that makes sense to Jet Airways' shareholders will make sense for the promoters as well," Goyal said. Together with JetLite, formerly Air Sahara, which Jet bought last year, the airline controls over 29 per cent of the Indian domestic market.
"The Chinese government has never allowed a third party to operate to the US out of China. This is for the first time that our government negotiated with them to do so. We hope to get the permission from China soon," Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal told reporters. With the launch of San Francisco flight from May 5, Jet Airways would become the first private carrier to operate a non-stop daily flight to Shanghai from country's financial hub of Mumbai.
Cash-strapped Indian carriers are finally finding money to finance expansion plans or merely fund operations. State-owned Air India is set to receive a $1 billion (Rs 49,000 crore) loan and Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways is close to striking a deal for a Rs 500-crore loan from Indian Overseas Bank.
US-based UPS on Thursday opened its first store in Mumbai. This is the first store outside North America.
Jet is believed to be in talks with leading private equity players.
The airline has also finalised its plans to lease out five of its Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft to a Turkish carrier, sources add. The airline has been able to negotiate a premium for the deal in a market where lease premiums have dropped.Domestic carriers are facing turbulent times because of the high crude prices and variable taxation on the air turbine fuel. The problem is now compounded because of a slump in the economy now.
The Bombay high court has asked Mumbai Police Commissioner to file a report on the alleged underworld links of Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal.
Reduce high-cost loans, create a contingency fund and play long term. These are the only mantras to survive during a slowdown.
National Aviation Company, the name of the proposed merged entity of Air India and Indian Airlines, plans to launch a value carrier to take on the challenge from JetLite and Air Deccan.
Private airline Jet Airways is in talks with Lufthansa Group to float a wholly owned subsidiary for dedicated cargo operations.
Who is to take their place? Will a new generation of entrepreneurs start up with better business sense, or at least better luck? But the so-called unicorns are mostly copy-cat entrepreneurs whose cash flow is funded by overseas (including Chinese) money, notes T N Ninan.
Jet Airways moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking to transfer all ongoing arbitration cases filed by its failed acquisition target Air Sahara in the Lucknow district court to the Mumbai high court, raising jurisdiction issue.
The muti-million dollar deal for takeover of Air Sahara by India's largest private airline Jet Airways broke down late Wednesday night.
India's largest private carrier Jet Airways said on Tuesday it expects to more than double its revenues to $3 billion in the next three years. The company on Monday announced its total income rose over 26 per cent to Rs 2,254.17 crore (Rs 22.54 billion) in the second quarter this fiscal from Rs 1,787.33 crore (Rs 17.87 billion) during the same period last fiscal.
Jet is losing money fast, beset by high costs, low fares and cut-throat competition in its domestic market.
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