Jet suspends all flights to Etihad hub Abu Dhabi
Saurabh.Sinha @timesgroup.com
New Delhi:18.03.2019
Jet Airways will from Monday suspend all flights to and from Abu Dhabi, the base of Etihad which has a 24% stake in it and from whom fund infusion is awaited for Jet to survive. In a notice, Etihad Airport Services warned passengers of “minor disruption” due to the “short notice of flight cancellation”.
Jet-Etihad combine, in the past few years, has become the largest in terms of flying people in and out of India. “The cancellation of Abu Dhabi flights is part of our ongoing route restructuring due to the operational issues (read grounding of more than 50 planes so far for reasons like non-payment to lessors). For the same reason, we have reduced our Delhi to Dubai and Bangkok flights,” said a senior Jet official. While Etihad may mount extra flights to and from Abu Dhabi, it may not be able to accommodate all those booked on Jet’s cancelled flights.
Other Indian carriers refuse to accommodate Jet passengers
Other Indian carriers like Air India have already refused to accommodate Jet flyers. Jet did not comment on how it will accommodate passengers on flights cancelled to and from Abu Dhabi and beyond on Etihad flights to and from rest of the world from there.
A significant number of Jet’s passengers on flights to and from Abu Dhabi are those who are travelling between India and the West like Europe, Africa and North America. The ‘interim’ suspension of Abu Dhabi flights means these transit passengers will also be affected.
At the peak of their partnership three years ago, the combined networks of Etihad and Jet offered over 250 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and 15 cities across India. However, this number has dropped significantly in the past few months due to failing financial health. While Jet and Etihad did not give how many flights they operate from Abu Dhabi to how many Indian cities daily, travel industry sources say Etihad has 175 weekly flights to India while Jet has “one daily from Delhi (cancelled in March and April); two daily from Mumbai (no operations in March and only one flight in April); had three daily from Bangalore, which are currently not operating and one from Pune with no operation in April.”
“Jet is in a critical condition. But cancellation of Abu Dhabi flights will hurt Etihad even more. For example, the refund of Delhi-Abu Dhabi-New York-Abu Dhabi-Delhi ticket means a greater shelling out for Etihad as it would have carried on the flights to and from the US,” said a travel agent.
Jet has significant tie-ups with Air France-KLM, Delta and Etihad for flying traffic between India and the rest of the world through those airlines’ hubs. The cancellation of Abu Dhabi will mean the entire one-stop traffic between India and the West on Jet and its partners Etihad, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic will now be on airline partners other than Etihad. At least till Jet gets sustainable and resumes flights there. However given Jet’s precarious financial condition, it remains to be seen if flyers are confident enough to book tickets of the airline.
A senior Jet official claimed the cancellation of flights to Abu Dhabi is not linked to delay in equity infusion from Etihad. Goyal had on March 8 written to Etihad Group CEO Tony Douglas seeking urgent infusion of ₹750 crore within a week failing which he warned the airline could even get grounded. While it is now 10 days since the SOS was sent, Jet has not received any funds from Etihad.
Incidentally, Monday (March 18) is by when Jet founder Naresh Goyal had told employees in a letter on March 1 of the “situation gently easing up in our favour”. While whether that happens, remain to be seen, Jet will for now stop flights to its partner’s hub from that date.
Jet officials themselves do not know when the situation will improve as that depends on fund infusion happening from Etihad and then banks restructuring loans. Asked if the Monday (March 18) date given for things to start improving will be met, the official said, “We are hoping for the best.”
In the meanwhile, Jet is slowly losing its critical operational resources built over past 25 years. The lessors of its grounded aircraft are now looking at redeploying them elsewhere, including at SpiceJet. IndiGo, which is facing severe pilot shortage, is holding road shows to hire pilots, a move many in the industry see is aimed at Jet’s unpaid-for-months pilots. In fact, IndiGo pilots are reportedly upset at the way the airline is going all out to woo pilots from other airlines (read Jet) and have sought a hike for themselves.
Saurabh.Sinha @timesgroup.com
New Delhi:18.03.2019
Jet Airways will from Monday suspend all flights to and from Abu Dhabi, the base of Etihad which has a 24% stake in it and from whom fund infusion is awaited for Jet to survive. In a notice, Etihad Airport Services warned passengers of “minor disruption” due to the “short notice of flight cancellation”.
Jet-Etihad combine, in the past few years, has become the largest in terms of flying people in and out of India. “The cancellation of Abu Dhabi flights is part of our ongoing route restructuring due to the operational issues (read grounding of more than 50 planes so far for reasons like non-payment to lessors). For the same reason, we have reduced our Delhi to Dubai and Bangkok flights,” said a senior Jet official. While Etihad may mount extra flights to and from Abu Dhabi, it may not be able to accommodate all those booked on Jet’s cancelled flights.
Other Indian carriers refuse to accommodate Jet passengers
Other Indian carriers like Air India have already refused to accommodate Jet flyers. Jet did not comment on how it will accommodate passengers on flights cancelled to and from Abu Dhabi and beyond on Etihad flights to and from rest of the world from there.
A significant number of Jet’s passengers on flights to and from Abu Dhabi are those who are travelling between India and the West like Europe, Africa and North America. The ‘interim’ suspension of Abu Dhabi flights means these transit passengers will also be affected.
At the peak of their partnership three years ago, the combined networks of Etihad and Jet offered over 250 weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and 15 cities across India. However, this number has dropped significantly in the past few months due to failing financial health. While Jet and Etihad did not give how many flights they operate from Abu Dhabi to how many Indian cities daily, travel industry sources say Etihad has 175 weekly flights to India while Jet has “one daily from Delhi (cancelled in March and April); two daily from Mumbai (no operations in March and only one flight in April); had three daily from Bangalore, which are currently not operating and one from Pune with no operation in April.”
“Jet is in a critical condition. But cancellation of Abu Dhabi flights will hurt Etihad even more. For example, the refund of Delhi-Abu Dhabi-New York-Abu Dhabi-Delhi ticket means a greater shelling out for Etihad as it would have carried on the flights to and from the US,” said a travel agent.
Jet has significant tie-ups with Air France-KLM, Delta and Etihad for flying traffic between India and the rest of the world through those airlines’ hubs. The cancellation of Abu Dhabi will mean the entire one-stop traffic between India and the West on Jet and its partners Etihad, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic will now be on airline partners other than Etihad. At least till Jet gets sustainable and resumes flights there. However given Jet’s precarious financial condition, it remains to be seen if flyers are confident enough to book tickets of the airline.
A senior Jet official claimed the cancellation of flights to Abu Dhabi is not linked to delay in equity infusion from Etihad. Goyal had on March 8 written to Etihad Group CEO Tony Douglas seeking urgent infusion of ₹750 crore within a week failing which he warned the airline could even get grounded. While it is now 10 days since the SOS was sent, Jet has not received any funds from Etihad.
Incidentally, Monday (March 18) is by when Jet founder Naresh Goyal had told employees in a letter on March 1 of the “situation gently easing up in our favour”. While whether that happens, remain to be seen, Jet will for now stop flights to its partner’s hub from that date.
Jet officials themselves do not know when the situation will improve as that depends on fund infusion happening from Etihad and then banks restructuring loans. Asked if the Monday (March 18) date given for things to start improving will be met, the official said, “We are hoping for the best.”
In the meanwhile, Jet is slowly losing its critical operational resources built over past 25 years. The lessors of its grounded aircraft are now looking at redeploying them elsewhere, including at SpiceJet. IndiGo, which is facing severe pilot shortage, is holding road shows to hire pilots, a move many in the industry see is aimed at Jet’s unpaid-for-months pilots. In fact, IndiGo pilots are reportedly upset at the way the airline is going all out to woo pilots from other airlines (read Jet) and have sought a hike for themselves.
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