In other news, Jet Airways is now chopping off international routes like the airline is going out of fashion. First it was the South African route that went away, then they withdrew the Brussels – New York JFK flight a while back. A route realignment here or there is not such a big deal in the scheme of things but I gave 9W the benefit of doubt. However, it now looks like the trickle is turning into a storm.
As per AirlineRoute.net, Jet Airways has decided to pull the plug on the MAA-BRU segment as well after it withdrew from BRU-JFK earlier in September 2012. The airline has stopped selling tickets for MAA-BRU flights from 15 November 2012 onwards, which it used to service on an Airbus 330-200 plane.
Hazarding a guess, I suspect that Jet Airways did not see much traffic from MAA willing to go into BRU as origination & destination traffic, and flying to Newark may not have been such a popular option after all for their Indian following. However, Newark may have been continued as a station because Jet Airways has also made investment in physical infrastructure there like their own lounge.
With this, two A330-200 planes will be eased out from the TATL service. Also, 9W is expected to receive their first A330-300 in October 2012. Anyone hazard a guess on future plans? Also, with only 4 planes crossing paths at Brussels, is the scissor hub worth much now?
Update: Apparently I was not keeping track. The first A330-200 I mentioned in the paragraph above is already out and on lease to Etihad. Leaves them with one more which will free up and perhaps head out on a lease to someone soon!
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@Sampath, Santhosh, they are launching BLR-MUC-BLR not BLR-BRU-BLR.
BLR-BRU-BLR would be utter waste since the traffic would be very less as compared to Chennai since Bangalore is already been served by Air France and Lufthansa
I spoke with Jet airways route team.. What they are saying is that they intend to launch a Bangalore – Brussels – Bangalore instead of maa- bru-maa.
Chennai. Guys will be connected via Bangalore or via Mumbai to Brussels. Mostly via Bangalore,
sir,
the one A330-200 (JWD) that Jet has retired, went to air seychelles not Etihad; a second one is set to be retired – JWE, both of these have the older interiors and were direct leases from ILFC, so Jet basically just returned the plane back to ILFC.
The real issue with BRU as a hub now is that, with only 4 daily flights, the HUB, so to speak, will suck money out of Jet, and all of this when Jet knows as well as we do that they sell BOM-YYZ via LHR on an AC Code’share, and they sell DEL-EWR via LHR on an interline with Virgin Atlantic.
The timing of the MAA-BRU pullout is questionable, as its right before the peak season.
Rishul
@Rishul, VT-JWD is leased by Etihad and operated for Air Seychelles. So, either way you look at it, it is correct I suppose. 🙂
I would guess that there is a possibility that one of the new planes could be used to start a new Vancouver to Delhi route. With so many Indians, mainly Punjabis living in Vancouver (Almost 400,000), there is a huge untapped market