The spoils of Jet Airways collapse are not just for domestic carriers, but international airlines as well. British Airways, in just a few days, will launch a new flight to catch more of the traffic between Mumbai and London left behind by Jet Airways. Qatar Airways had requested to operate additional flights using Jet Airways bilateral rights, but the government has declined the request.

Jet Airways was a key partner for the Air France/KLM/Delta/Virgin Atlantic joint venture, bringing traffic from India to their hubs in Paris/Amsterdam/London, from where the other carriers would pick up the transatlantic leg for North America, largely the USA.

Given Jet Airways is not operating anymore, KLM has already announced capacity addition on both Mumbai and Delhi routes. Adding to this, Virgin Atlantic is now returning to Mumbai from October 27, 2019, with a daily flight on Mumbai-London Heathrow route. Apart from Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai were two other vital cities under Jet Airways and Air France-KLM codeshare.

Jet Airways used to operate a daily flight on Bangalore-Amsterdam route with an A330-300 and a 5x weekly flight on Chennai-Paris route with an A330-200 aircraft. Both these routes were doing pretty well in terms of PLF, and around 50% of the passengers were transit passengers continuing onto Air France-KLM network.

KLM is reportedly planning to add a 3x weekly Bangalore – Amsterdam service from October 2019 to take advantage of the void that is created now. KLM’s 787-9 feature 30 business class seats, 48 economy comfort seats and 216 economy class seats.

As reported by Luchtvaartnieuws, a Dutch publication, Harm Kreulen, Director of KLM Netherlands confirmed that,

KLM will fly to Bangalore itself after Jet Airways has disappeared. The city in the South Indian state of Karnataka is approached directly from Schiphol as of the new winter season.

Adding to this, KLM has already started setting up its ground operations at Bangalore airport.

https://twitter.com/sandeeprrao1991/status/1130030780950835200

It is also being reported that KLM will not return to Colombo in the winter schedule due to lower bookings in light of the recent terror attacks in Sri Lanka. KLM operates a seasonal 2x weekly Colombo-Amsterdam route with a 787-9. But as of now, reservations are open for the route for the Winter 2019 season.

Are you excited/relieved for KLM’s planned new flight to Bangalore?