"The fare war was a disaster. Airline industry would have become sick if it had continued. Thank God that things are back to normal now" said the Jet Airways chief while addressing a press conference in the capital.

He said that Jet Airways had never believed in mixing flying with freebies. "We do not make offers of free Mercedes rides, free consumer goods, and free chicken tikkas at Banglore restaurants if passengers fly with us" said a piqued Goyal, in an obvious dig at rival Sahara Airlines.

Goyal defended that Jet Airways was left with no choice but to slash fares in order to defend its market share in the face of fare cuts by other airlines. He expressed the hope that the fare war would not re-start in the next lean season. "Indian Airlines has to make its own decisions depending on the situation. However, the fare war did not benefit anyone" he added.

Jet Airways is scheduled to launch its regional operations on feeder routes and tourist circuits from Friday. It will service these routes with the 70-seater turbo-prop ATR 72-500.

Jet has already recieved the first two of the five ATR aircraft which it proposes to induct in its fleet. The third aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in early November.

Jet Airways has purchased the ATR aircraft from the Toulose-based Avions De Transport Regional, a partnership of Aerospatiale Matra of France and Alenia of Italy.

Jet's inaugral flight with the ATR on Friday will cover the Delhi-Japiur-Udaipur-Mumbai route. Claude Blanchemaison, ambassador of France in India, Maharana Shreeji of Mewar will be on the inaugral flight along with Goyal and Antoine Bouvier, CEO of ATR.

With the first two ATR aircraft, Jet Airways will add four more stations to its network and provide links between seven city pairs.

"Jet Airways is increasing the airlinks in the country which is a very significant part of infrastructure. However, the growth of these operations will depend on Government policies regarding input costs" said Goyal.

He pointed out that aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices had recently been rising steadilty.

Bouvier of ATR ointed out that the new generation of turbo-props could not be compared to the earlier ones as they were far more efficient and noiseless. He said that Jet Airways was responding to the needs of passengers by getting small aircraft.

Jet Airways, with a fleet of 25 Boeing aircraft, presently operates over 155 flights daily and serves 30 destinations.