Jet Airways signs inter-airline deal with Thai

Jet Airways, India's largest private airline, has formed a commercial partnership with Thai Airways International as part of its strategy to expand its operations with international carriers on a bilateral basis. The Mumbai-based carrier has opted for bilateral arrangements rather than joining global airline alliances such as Star Alliance, Oneworld or Skyteam, which entail complications such as adopting common operation systems. In addition to Thai, Jet has struck earlier deals with Lufthansa and British Airways. "We are not joining any alliance at this time because we are new. We will have bilateral relationships with different countries," Jet chairman Naresh Goyal said. The Jet-Thai pact essentially allows both airlines to feed passengers to each other on the routes on which they operate. For instance, passengers on Thai can connect to various domestic Indian cities that it is not serving by using Jet aircraft.

Elsewhere, Jet can fly Thai passengers to San Francisco, to which the Thai national carrier is not operating, from Shanghai, one of Jet's future destinations. The two are discussing an expanded arrangement that would include code-sharing, frequent-flyer programmes and shared check-in facilities, said Mr Goyal. Also under discussion is co-operation in technical areas such as aircraft maintenance and inflight services, according to Mr Goyal. Jet on Jan 23 will begin services to Thailand with seven weekly flights each on the Bangkok-Delhi and Bangkok-Kolkata routes. It is also making Bangkok its gateway to Burma, Laos, Cambodia, China and Japan. Its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore will look after Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The 14-year-old Jet has an aggressive expansion plan under way, being granted requisite rights on the India-USA route, and plans to begin daily flights between Mumbai and Newark, New Jersey, via Brussels by August.

Jet intends to add services to China, Hong Kong, Canada and Africa in the near future. With more international flights, Jet will add eight Boeing B777 ER jetliners and five Airbus A330-200 aircraft to its 58-plane fleet this year. It has also placed an order with Boeing for 10 B787 Dreamliners, the new generation of medium-sized jets, for delivery in 2011 and 2012. Suraphon Svetasreni, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said the addition of Jet's flights from the two Indian cities would bring the total number of flights between Thailand and India to 144 a week. The expansion will help achieve the target set by the Thai and Indian governments to have 10,000 airline seats available each week between the two countries within the next three years, he said.

visit us @ http://www.silkrouteholidays.com