Jet Airways might as well become the the first of the Indian carriers to get a foreign equity investment, with the Jet – Etihad deal moving in the forward direction today after being stalled for a while.
For a quick recap, Jet Airways agreed to sell 24% stake in the airline, majority stake in loyalty program JetPrivilege and its London slots to Etihad for a price of roughly $600 million. This deal, obviously, was subject to regulatory scrutiny and approvals. However, it turns out that there were way too many clauses where Etihad was going to take over control, including the move to migrate revenue management to Abu Dhabi. Also, Etihad was getting veto powers, so they had a say on everything for just being a minority shareholder.
Various Indian regulators, such as SEBI (Indian capital markets) raised their concerns, and these were taken into consideration by the authority which had to give its clearance on the deal. As a result, the deal has been hanging for over a month.
Last week, Etihad and Jet Airways put forth a watered down version of the deal, which included lesser number of board seats, and this has been approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board today. All that remains now is approval by the Government of India (formally), and the deal is a go. I don’t expect much hesitation from the Government to sign off on the deal, which means the airlines would soon move forward on their integration as well.
Jet Airways surely is my preferred airline in India, and after my recent trip on Etihad, I am a fan of theirs as well. So, I look forward to seeing how the integration works out and what new comes out for frequent fliers such as myself with this alliance.
Related Posts:
- Jet Airways to sell 24% stake to Etihad Airways as well as JetPrivilege
- Jet-Etihad come closer, EY buys 9W’s LHR slots
- Jet Airways deal with Etihad Airways
- Jet Airways on verge of strategic partnership with Etihad
- Speculation: Is Jet Airways going to get a shareholder in Etihad Airways?
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Wanted to ask you about PremiereMiles. I have accumulated some 30K miles- and I was thinking whether it makes sense to transfer them to Flying Returns- as not sure if will be able to use them anywhere else Or should I just keep them as is.
Also- Just saw- it costs only 4k miles from Chennai to Colombo-on JET Airways and Air India both. Also- which one makes more sense to use- as I have 8K in JP Miles and 30k in Premieremiles- and planning to go later during the year.
I was surprised to see such low miles- and wanted to know if there are any other applicable charges associated with this.
Because, even 25K miles from Mumbai to London for Air India looks really low compared to the prices of tickets. Am I missing something here?
@Priyansh, I’d advise you to keep your miles in Premiermiles only till you’ve decided on a redemption. That gives you more flexibility when your decision is closed to move to any FFP you please. Chennai to Colombo is a 1 hour flight and just like a domestic flight on AI or 9W. So, you could go with either. There will be fuel surcharges and taxes with the ticket associated. You can check applicable charges by trying to book tickets on 9W Redeem Miles and flyingreturns.co.in
@AJ, Got it about Premiere Miles. Thanks.
Though about award tickets, are you telling me that the JP Miles only gives Base Fare off? Every other taxes and surcharges are to be borne by us?
Coz thn forget Chennai-Colombo, even BLR-MUM does not look a good option with 8500 miles for a base fare of few hundreds.
@Priyansh, like I said, the charges for each route are separate on different carriers. Some airlines pass on the fuel surcharge like British Airways, and some others absorb it like American Airways. Request you to price the award tickets and see if it is a value proposition for you or not.