Jet to opt out of seven Gulf routes

Mumbai, December 2

Struggling to keep afloat in the wake of a dismal financial performance in the last three quarters, Jet Airways is withdrawing its flight services on as many as seven Gulf routes from this month, a source said.

The Naresh Goyal-controlled airline will not operate as many as 39 services per week to Doha, Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Dubai from various domestic cities, he said.

Once a key market for Jet Airways, the lower demand and high competition have made a good number of routes in the Gulf economically unviable, forcing the airline to withdraw operations from there, the source said.

Notably, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways holds 24 per cent stake in the domestic full service carrier. “Jet Airways has decided to withdraw its services to Doha from Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram as well as to Abu Dhabi from Lucknow and Mangalore. Besides, the airline will not operate on the Mangalore-Dubai route. All these services are being taken out of operations from December 5,” the source said.

This apart, the air services on Delhi-Muscat route are also being withdrawn from this month, he said. Jet Airways in its response said Gulf operations are being optimised to focus on connectivity at its hubs in Mumbai and Delhi instead of point-to-point connectivity. The airline also said it will be enhancing frequency on Mumbai-Doha, Delhi-Doha as well as Mumbai-Dubai routes. Jet Airways posted a net loss of Rs 1,261 crore in September quarter. Amid cash paucity, it has been defaulting on salary payments to 15% of workforce, primarily senior management, pilots and engineers. — PTI