‘Low fares are not sustainable’

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: out one row from both economy and business class. We have all the goodies of a full service carrier in economy class including frequent flyer programmes, personalised service, etc. We haven’t ignored the economy.

What kind of market share are you eyeing in the Gulf sector?

Our plan is to have 10 flights to Gulf. That would mean one million seats in terms of capacity. It’s small when compared with the market size, which is 16 million seats. We hope to make a mark with the right product, positioning and pricing.

How large is the India-Gulf market in terms of passengers?

Eight million in terms of passengers. It’s the largest and also very competitive because there are many carriers flying to the Gulf region. The next is the India-US market, which is 4 million in terms of passengers. This one is equally competitive. The irony today is that there is no market that is not competitive. We have to up the ante as we get into each one of them.

You did up the ante on the India-London route?

That’s correct. We are the number two carrier after British Airways on that sector. In fact, 70% of our passengers are of Indian origin. So, that worked for us. Besides, we have a strong home base. We fly to 45 destinations. These have contributed to us emerging as a strong player on that route.

Are you depending heavily on high service levels for your global operations?

That’s correct. Service levels are key to getting passengers. We are going the whole hog to see that our service levels are intact with training programmes, etc.

But what are you doing to stem the attrition in Jet? It’s been a serious issue of late.

It’s not an unusually high attrition that we are seeing. We are prepared for it.

But senior hands have been quitting. What do you have to say about it?