Jet Airways is getting their act together on their long-haul operations. The airline launched flights last year from Bangalore to Amsterdam, and Chennai to Paris. They also started a new flight between Mumbai and London, making their daily frequencies on that route to 3.
Now, they are getting more aggressive. Last night, first rumors started emerging that Jet Airways is considering flights between Mumbai to Manchester, and Mumbai and Sydney. This morning I had confirmation on the fact that the Mumbai to Manchester route was, in fact, a go. Since I was out in meetings, I put it out on Twitter first.
.@jetairways is launching Mumbai to Manchester flights 4x a week to be operated by their @Airbus 330-200 aircraft. First flight November 2018. Also, Mumbai – Sydney in the works. #avgeek #joyofflying
— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) May 18, 2018
It was then confirmed by Jet Airways, almost instantly.
On November 5, Jet Airways will start non-stop flights connecting Mumbai and Manchester. The new service is the first non-stop service connecting India via Mumbai with Manchester. Manchester will become the 21st international addition to Jet Airways’ network. It will be the airline’s fifth non-stop service to/from the UK.
The Mumbai-Manchester flight will operate four days every week on Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday as per the following schedule.
9W130 BOM0230 – 0755MAN 332 1467
9W129 MAN0935 – 0040(+1)BOM 332 1467
The airline will use their Airbus A330-200 aircraft on this route. My assumption is, some Jet Airways A330-200 that was leased out to another airline is coming back to them, and they will use this aircraft to fly this route. You can read a full review of the A330-200 Business Class service here.
This won’t be the first time an Indian carrier has tapped into a secondary UK airport. For a long while, Air India has operated 1-stop flights between Amritsar & Birmingham as well, which recently went direct.
While it has not been announced, it seems Jet Airways is also considering launching a Mumbai – Sydney non-stop flight in December 2018, although more details are still forthcoming on this.
Bottomline
This is great news. The carrier, which was once shrinking, is on their growth path again. Moreover, between the better utilization of their aircraft fleet and new aircraft to enter service this year, there isn’t a better way to announce that you’ve survived and thrived for 25 years.
What new routes do you expect Jet Airways to open in the coming year?
Their share price has dropped from INR 800 at its peak few mnths back to INR 420 this week – Thats a huge drop in its value. I dont think investors are satisfied by their books.
@Deepak Kapur, if you looked at IndiGo and SpiceJet, they also had a drop in their Share Prices. Are you saying that the markets have no role to play in this, and there is only Jet Airways to be isolated and looked at and not the sector as a whole? Also, any comments on the Oil price shooting up while we are at it, which is perhaps going to be the Achilles heels for everyone going forward.
Ajay – 9W has had the highest fall in its share price 50%, Indigo was 25% but that was mainly due to their President resigning so more event driven plus their valuation was already overpriced, but Jet had no significant event to qualify such a steep fall. Oil prices agree impacts all and will impact the valuation of these airlines going forward but its the debt levels and the margins which will play a significant role and in both 9W lags its peers!
Which aircraft have their best business class set up? Or do they still have F?
@Stephan they do have F on their B777s, but it is scheduled to go. The A332 actually has their best J class given it has more space than their A333 J Class
l am flying with jetairways last 5 year from Florence via paris can jet airways starts flight between mumbai Rome Mumbai?
I believe there’s an error in the timings, simply comparing to LHR and other West European schedules.
The return from MAN to BOM should not be so long; I think the actual departure time will be 1035 to arrive 0040, or perhaps 0935 to arrive 2340.
I don’t know about JNB or even SYD. I wouldn’t be surprised if AI beats them to JNB and LOS.
Jet has a long history of difficulty with longhaul route development, except for the UK. (AMS+CDG are partner destinations.)
@paddy, you are thinking in the summer time. During the winters, daylight time would be off, so the timings would work fine.
As for your comments about other routes, AI can sure beat them to wherever they want, but 9W likes profitable route development and AI, well, just route development. Hence, there is a difference of approach.
Ajay, simply look at samples from the November schedule:
9W 10:05 LHR –> 00:35 BOM (9h00)
BA 09:50 LHR –> 00:15 BOM (8h55)
AI 13:15 LHR –> 02:45 BOM (8h00)
9W 11:20 AMS –> 00:25 BOM (8h35)
KL 13:10 AMS –> 02:15 BOM (8h35)
The MAN schedule is, at a minimum, 30 minutes too long, but I think 60 minutes too long is more likely. Particularly so once you take into account that LHR is chronically delayed with long waits for takeoff, which necessitates a greater block time, compared with AMS, which is busy itself.
As for 9W route development, you are being far too kind to Jet Airways. They have a long history of epic failure in longhaul route development, even on excellent high-yielding, high-volume routes. This is due primarily to gross incompetence on the part of their commercial team. Yes, they have done better with “ethnic” routes involving the UK.
Absolutely brilliant. A new connection in UK and possibility of SYD on cards will give a good transfer for Europe to Australia via BOM.
I was always looking forward for both these routes.
Looking forward few routes in Africa example BOM-JNB, BOM-NBO-LAGOS sector as well which is always full.
I expect them to start BOM JNB if they get back all their 3 a332s from Air Serbia. Jet operated this route in 2008 but later dropped it. However unlike 2008, now they will have a monopoly in this route as SAA no longer comes to BOM.
I’m extremely happy to see that finally 9W is able to utilize its widebodies well. There have been times when they had to literally park a B777 at HKG for 24 hours just because they could not find another use of it. They once parked 6 a330s at DEL tarmac because of the same reason. All that was after they had leased 6 B777s to EY. However all that is now history. I see , the new management is trying hard to bring 9W back on track.