Jet Airways has been in a dwindling situation for the past few months. Yesterday, the airline discontinued flights to London, Amsterdam and Singapore. While it first appeared to be a temporary suspension, but it now looks like a more desperate situation. Earlier, Jet Airways had cut away one Mumbai – London flight, and given back the slot to Delta who owned the slot.
Jet Airways Boeing 777-300ER
Jet Airways flights to London from Mumbai and Delhi have been cancelled in both directions till April 18, 2019. Here is the latest update for departures from London to India for April 14, 2019.
Now, while the airline had announced they have cancelled operations for a few days, it seems to be that their operations abroad will be suspended for a longer period of time for now. Back in 2013, Jet Airways sold 3 slot pairs at London Heathrow to Etihad Airways to generate $70 million as a part of the transaction to induct Etihad Airways as an equity partner. From there on, Jet Airways used to use the same slots and nothing changed apart from the owner of the slots.
Now, Jet Airways has returned these slots to Etihad, at very short notice. Here is the notice that went out a few hours back from the slot coordination company.
The rest, as you can make it out, is self-explanatory. Etihad is basically planning to mount new flights between Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow using 77W aircraft to fill up the slots taken back from Jet Airways. These flights are not yet up for sale though. The transaction is in place from April 28, 2019, which means that there may be ad-hoc flights in between to accommodate any passengers who are still not at their final destinations, but after that its a wrap.
So, this means that Jet Airways’ 77W flights to London Heathrow are history for the moment. Unfortunately, there are no backup plans for those booked on Jet Airways to fly to London for the Cricket World Cup for now. This just leaves Air India and British Airways as the only two direct flight operators between India and UK from multiple airports, and Virgin Atlantic from Delhi for now.
Have those who were booked on the summer schedule of Jet Airways heard about any cancellations or rebooking options?
Hi we have booked in jet airways from Hyderabad to Toronto to Hyderabad in the month of June 2019 whether the flights will run or whether we can can cancel it. If we cancel whether we will get full refund.
Hi, I need a suggestion, I have booked flight tickets for Mumbai-Paris and Rome-Mumbai for Jet Airways through MMT for end of May 2019 and 09 June 2019 resp, I am wondering what I should do given the current situation, I.e should i cancel my tickets with Jet and book with other airlines ( which will cost me almost twice the amt i had spent with Jet) OR wait and watch….
Does this mean that Etihad is no longer interested in Jet, contrary to media reports saying that Etihad will be submitting a bid?
@Anoop ES, We don’t know just yet.
Hi ajay, it will make for an interesting post if you inform how many miles you and shipra stand to lose? And what your alternative strategies are for poi ts collection now that Jet are well and truly going down the pan! Personally, i lost over 80K king miles when the good times went bust. Since then, ive made it a point to collect with flexible currencies like Amex MR and SPG with my FF status linked to BA.
Being in India, you can not say no to JP miles earning opportunities similar to King Miles. Look at Premier or Prestige miles as well, that gives better chance of earning BA miles per Rs. 100.
Im not based in India but both myself and family travel regularly hence we got burnt with King Miles but i think my strategy holds true anywhere in the world: 1) choose an airline and earn status – for me its BA and Oneworld, 2) eanr and burn miles earned on your airline of choice (as earning FF status means ypu naturally earn miles in said program) and finally 3) focus rest on flexi currencies – for me its Amex MR and SPG (now Bonvoy) but if i was in India i would be all.over the citibank premier miles in addition to Amex MR points.