Jet Airways‘ is quietly undergoing a restructuring of their international operations, it seems, to optimise the usage of their planes. This comes on the back of their financial troubles which don’t seem to blow away at the moment. Here is the latest news on Jet Airways.

Jet Airways grounded four widebody aircraft and started swapping out some of their larger jets with smaller jets out of many of their metro markets. They have also added some new routes like Pune to Singapore and a 3rd Daily New Delhi to Singapore. But it looks like Jet Airways is pulling international routes out of all non-hubs and non-focus cities for now.

Jet Airways, of course, would want to save the slots and the bilateral rights that have been allocated to them, since they are hard to get, and once they lose them, most probably IndiGo will corner those rights for them to never come back in their pool again. So to optimise their network, and perhaps save operational costs like rostering of the crew and aircraft, they are adding flights from Mumbai and Delhi.

Jet Airways had grounded 1 out of their 4 Airbus A330-200s. Earlier this week they launched the Mumbai to Manchester route with an Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Since 2 Airbus A330-300s are out of service, so flights from Hong Kong to New Delhi and Mumbai are now being operated by Airbus A330-200, which is odd because the flight is sold as a Boeing 777-300 operation [Ed’s note: Shipra, Ajay and Ashwant have both used the Hong Kong flights at least 8 times over the past 2-3 months, and they have been the 77W].

Mumbai to Singapore and Mumbai to Doha routes which were earlier operated by Airbus A330-200 are now being operated by 737 aircraft, which represents a capacity reduction. Jet is making up for this lost capacity by restructuring their network and adding more narrowbodies to keep up their seat share. Bilaterals work on the concept of the number of seats allocated per week, so by adding another plane, they’d be able to keep the seats they may have lost otherwise, to another Indian competitor.

Second Mumbai to Doha Daily

Jet Airways is adding a new flight on Mumbai to Doha from December 5, 2018. The flight has the following schedule.

9W560 BOM2030 – 2155DOH 737 D
9W559 DOH2255 – 0455(+1)BOM 737 D

The flight timings are very close to the existing 9W 552/551.

Second Delhi to Doha Daily

There will be a new flight on Delhi to Doha from December 5, 2018, with the following schedule

9W202 DEL2355-0150(+1)DOH 737 D
9W201 DOH0250-0905DEL 737 D

Seventh Mumbai to Dubai daily

9W will start a new rotation on Mumbai to Dubai from December 5, 2018, with the following schedule.

9W526 BOM0210-0405DXB 737 D
9W525 DXB0035–0515BOM 737 D

With this flight, Jet Airways will have the highest number on flights on Mumbai to Dubai route. Jet Airways will have two more flight frequencies than Emirates. Nevertheless, they may not be highest regarding seat capacity on the route.

Third Mumbai to Singapore Daily rotation added

9W is adding a third daily Boeing 737 rotation on Mumbai to Singapore route from December 5. This is a sensible move since it will help them maintain capacity and garner slots at the same time. The flight will have the following schedule,

9W8 BOM0635-1450SIN 737 D
9W7 SIN1550 1905 BOM 737 D

Fourth New Delhi to Kathmandu Daily

Jet Airways is adding a fourth daily 737 rotation on New Delhi to Kathmandu route from December 5 with the following schedule.

9W262 DEL1705 – 1925KTM 737 D
9W261 KTM2030 – 2025DEL 737 D

Third Daily New Delhi to Bangkok

Jet Airways is also going to add a third daily Boeing 737 rotation on the New Delhi to Bangkok route from December 5 with the following schedule.

9W 58DEL0720 – 1300BKK 737 D
9W 57BKK1400 – 1725DEL 737 D

Are these Middle-East routes on the chopping block?

We’ve monitored all the Middle-East Routes and noticed consistently that the following flights are not showing too many seats up on sale from the same date that the new routes are launching. You would see a big fare jump from December 5, so while these routes are not closed for ticketing at the moment, most probably these will go away? The connections are cheaper, and this is valid through the next couple of months, so it is not like this is an aberration, but perhaps the direct flight is indeed ready to be shut down.

The following routes look to be all in the same situation:

• Kochi-Doha Daily
• Kozhikode-Doha 4x Weekly
• Thiruvananthapuram-Doha 3x Weekly
• Lucknow-Abu Dhabi Daily
• Mangalore-Abu Dhabi Daily
• Mangalore-Dubai Daily

Pune to Abu Dhabi, Thiruvananthapuram to Damman, Kochi to Sharjah and Kolkata to Dhaka are spared for now. Pune to Abu Dhabi and Thiruvananthapuram to Damman are monopoly routes so they won’t be on the chopping block.

Is Jet Airways reducing capacity on many other International routes too?

Mumbai & Delhi to Abu Dhabi 

Jet Airways is also optimising flight to Abu Dhabi from Mumbai and New Delhi as well. Earlier they used to operate double daily 737 flights from both New Delhi and Mumbai. Now, Jet Airways will operate 12 times a week flights on Mumbai to Abu Dhabi route. The flight which is seeing a reduction is,

9W586 BOM0455 – 0700AUH
9W585 AUH 0815 – 1305BOM

And 9x weekly flights from New Delhi to Abu Dhabi. The frequency which is seeing a reduction in flights is,

9W582 DEL0400 – 0645AUH
9W211 AUH0820 – 1325DEL

Mumbai to Bahrain

Jet Airways is reducing flights to Bahrain also. From February 1,  Jet Airways will operate 4x weekly flights from Mumbai to Bahrain instead of Daily flights.

9W592 BOM2120 – 2245BAH x127
9W 591 BAH2345 – 0555(+1)BOM x127

New Delhi to Dhaka

New Delhi to Dhaka is going from double daily to 11x weekly from January 2, 2018. The flight which will see reduced frequency is,

9W 279 DEL1030 – 1320DAC x457
9W 280 DAC1455 – 1725DEL x457

Kochi to Sharjah

From March 24, 2019, Jet Airways will operate 4x weekly flights on Kochi to Sharjah route instead of daily flights.

9W 562 COK2125 – 0005(+1)COK x125
9W 561 SHJ0105 – 0625SHJ x125

There is a possibility that Mumbai to Dhaka and New Delhi to Dhaka will face a cut. This might be sensible as Jet Airways can serve Dhaka via Kolkata as other Indian carriers do.

Jet Airways is significantly reducing Abu Dhabi presence as it now operates double daily Mumbai to Abu Dhabi, 10x Weekly New Delhi to Abu Dhabi and Daily Pune to Abu Dhabi routes. There was a time when they used to operate flights to Abu Dhabi out of some Indian cities given their Etihad Airways connection.

Bottomline

Jet Airways is planning to cut away international flights from non-hubs, especially in South India and upping frequencies on their hubs to ensure that they keep the seat share of bilaterals. This optimised network is perhaps an initial step in a turnaround plan since it helps bring down operational costs and increase efficiency.

What is your reading of Jet Airways new route network? What do you think they are up to in this move?