Jet Airways records traffic increase

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, continued its impressive turnaround with the announcement of its stellar growth figures in December 2009. The airline, comprehensively bettering its already impressive growth figures in November 2009, reported a 53 % surge in domestic, and 28% surge in international passenger traffic for the month of December 2009, vis-a-vis the same period last year. The average seat factor for Jet Airways’ international operations for December also stood at a remarkable 84.9%, reflecting growing passenger demand for the airline’s award-winning international product.Jet Airways had posted a 33% growth in domestic and 19% growth in international passenger traffic in November 2009.JetLite, Jet Airways’ all-economy subsidiary, also continued to register strong growth, posting a 23% growth in passenger traffic at an average seat factor of 81.5% in December 2009.Mr. Nikos Kardassis, Chief Executive Officer, Jet Airways (I) Ltd said, “We are confident that Jet Airways is on a growth curve, and our continually improving results in November and December 2009 serve to further re-confirm this. We have over the last year introduced several new strategic marketing and network initiatives. The introduction of new flights to neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Qatar have resulted in increased payloads as well as a robust growth in traffic. Leveraging our unmatched pan-India connectivity, we offer guests seamless, on-time connections between India and the world, over our hubs in Mumbai and Delhi.The introduction of a new business model with Jet Airways Konnect, an enhanced focus on product and services by our dedicated team of highly talented professionals, as well as the improvement in reliability and on time performance of JetLite have helped us in emerging as an efficient and responsive organization sensitive to the changing needs of our domestic and international passenger. As business and leisure travel continues to improve in tandem with the global economic scenario, we expect a further growth in network-wide passenger numbers and yields.” Further facilitating these gains for Jet Airways has been the creation of Delhi and Mumbai as major operational hubs for seamless travel to and from India. This has helped Jet Airways’ create a larger customer base and offer enhanced services to its international and domestic travelers. As part of the company’s strategic expansion program, the airline has introduced new routes for its guests on the international sector. The airline is set to enhance its connectivity on the Delhi- Doha sector and has also introduced new Mumbai-Kathmandu and Mumbai-Dhaka services with the deployment of its new generation Boeing 737 aircraft. All these services will offer travelers seamless connectivity to several destinations across India, as well as to the Gulf, North America, Europe and ASEAN.